The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People with Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss in Later Life (4th Edition) (A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book)
by Nancy L. Mace
from The Johns Hopkins University Press
Revised in 2006 for its twenty-fifth anniversary, this best-selling book is the "bible" for families caring for people with Alzheimer disease, offering comfort and support to millions worldwide. In addition to the practical and compassionate guidance that have made The 36-Hour Day invaluable to caregivers, the fourth edition is the only edition currently available that includes new information on medical research and the delivery of care.
The new edition includes:
-new information on diagnostic evaluation-resources for families and adult children who care for people with dementia-updated legal and financial information-the latest information on nursing homes and other communal living arrangements-new information on research, medications, and the biological causes and effects of dementia
Also available in a large print edition
Praise for The 36-Hour Day:
The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for Persons with Alzheimer Disease, Related Dementing Illnesses, and Memory Loss in Later Life (3rd Edition)
by Nancy L. Mace
from Wellness Central
Updated with the newest information on Alzheimer's Disease and dementia, this bestselling book has remained the "bible" for families who are giving care toafflicted loved ones.
Updated with the newest information on Alzheimer's Disease and dementia, this bestselling book has remained the "bible" for families who are giving care toafflicted loved ones.
Creating Moments of Joy: A Journal for Caregivers, Fourth Edition (NEW COVER)
by Jolene Brackey
from Purdue University Press
Measure of the Heart: A Father's Alzheimer's, A Daughter's Return
by Mary Ellen Geist
from Springboard Press
Mary Ellen Geist decided to leave her job as a CBS Radio anchor to return home to Michigan when her father's Alzheimer's got to be too much for her mother to shoulder alone. She chose to live her life by a different set of priorities: to be guided by her heart, not by outside accomplishment and recognition.
The New York Times wrote a front page story on Mary Ellen on Thanksgiving 2005. It was one of the most e-mailed stories for the month. Through her own story and through interviews with doctors and other women who've followed the "Daughter Track"--leaving a job to care for an aging parent--Geist offers emotional insights on how to encourage interaction with the loved one you're caring for; how to determine daily tasks that are achievable and rewarding; how the personality of the patient affects the caregiving and the progression of the diseases; as well as invaluable advice about how caregivers can take care of themselves while accomplishing the Herculean task of constantly caring for others.
Geist's years in journalism allow her to report on Boomers' caretaking dilemmas with professional objectivity, and her warm voice brings compassion and insight to one of the most difficult stituations a son or daughter may face during his or her life.
The Boomer Burden: Dealing with Your Parents' Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff
by Julie Hall
from Thomas Nelson
A practical guide to advise Baby Boomers how to deal with the daunting task of facing a parents' eventual passing as it relates to residential contents, heirlooms, and the often difficult family interactions and feuds that accompany them.
With fascinating stories and comprehensive checklists, professional estate liquidator Julie Hall walks Baby Boomers through the often painful challenge of dividing the wealth and property of their parents' lifetime accumulation of stuff. From preparation while the parent is still living through compassionately helping them empty the family home, The Estate Lady® gives invaluable tips on negotiating the inevitable disputes, avoiding exploitation from scam artists, and eventually closing the chapter of their lives in a way that preserves relationships and maximizes value of assets.
How to Care for Aging Parents (Morris, How to Care for Aging)
by Virginia Morris
from Workman Publishing Company
The best and bestselling book of its kind. Originally published in 1995, How to Care for Aging Parents, with 220,000 copies in print, won a Books for a Better Life Award and was praised as "an indispensable book" (AARP) and "a compassionate guide of encyclopedic proportion" (The Washington Post). It also catapulted its author, Virginia Morris, to national prominence as a recognized eldercare authority on Oprah, Good Morning America, CNN, CBS, and other media.
Nine years later, and the need for the book is mushrooming: the number of adult children caring for a parent has increased from 4 million to 19.5 million, with roughly 80% of the nation's elderly cared for at home. Virginia Morris responds with a completely revised, up-to-date new edition. Expanded from 450 to over 650 pages, it covers all the emotional, legal, financial, medical, and logistical issues in caring for the elderly. There are new sections on expanded housing options, alternative therapies, balancing career and caregiving, and dealing with difficult parents. It covers the biggest change in caregiving--the newfound independence of seniors and benefits of healthy aging--and the reverse: three chapters are dedicated to caring for parents with Alzheimers. At the end of the book is an invaluable 100-page "Yellow Pages" guide to all the resources and services of the enormous eldercare industry.
The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
by David Shields
from Knopf
Amazon Significant Seven, February 2008: "After you turn 7, your risk of dying doubles every eight years." By your 80s, you "no longer even have a distinctive odor ... You're vanishing." "The brain of a 90-year-old is the same size as that of a 3-year-old." And it goes on and on. David Shields's litany of decay and decrepitude might have overwhelmed the age-sensitive reader (like this one), but The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead manages to transcend the maudlin by melding personal history with frank biological data about every stage of life, creating an "autobiography about my body" that seeks meaning in death, but moreover, life. Shields filters his frank--and usually foreboding--data through his own experience as a 51-year-old father with burgeoning back pain, contrasting his own gloomy tendencies with the defiant perspective of his own 97-year-old father, a man who has waged a lifelong, urgent battle against the infirmities of time. (If believed, his love life at age 70 was truly marvelous.) Interwoven with observations of philosophers from Cicero and Sophocles to Lauren Bacall and Woody Allen ("I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying."), Shields's book is a surprisingly moving and life-affirming embrace of the human condition, where inevitable failures and frailties become "thrilling" and "liberating," rather than dour portents of The End. --Jon Foro
Amazon.com Guest Review: Danielle Trussoni
David Shields's The Thing About Life is that One Day You'll Be Dead is an addictively punchy, startlingly brilliant exploration of our most essential relationship--the one between parent and child. Shields juxtaposes a storm of astonishing facts about the development of the human body ("By the time you're 5, your head has attained 90 percent of its mature size; by 7, your brain reaches 90 percent of its maximum weight; by 9, 95 percent; during adolescence, 100 percent") with an intimate portrait of himself as a son and father. The result is a naked, honest, and often funny book that forces one to look clearly at the realities of the body--especially the burden that biology imposes upon our inner life--in a fresh and disturbing way. The writing is fast, postmodern, and filled with quotations from such diverse sources as Shields's back doctor and Tolstoy. The style might be dizzying in the hands of a less perceptive narrator, but Shields has the eye of an archeologist cataloging the bizarre traits of an ancient civilization. How Shields managed to compress the whole mess of love, family, genetics, and desire into this elegant, elemental book is a wonder. --Danielle Trussoni, author of Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir
“David Shields has accomplished something here so pure and wide in its implications that I almost think of it as a secular, unsentimental Kahlil Gibran: a textbook for the acceptance of our fate on earth.” —Jonathan Lethem
Mesmerized—at times unnerved—by his ninety-seven-year-old father’s nearly superhuman vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an investigation of the human physical condition. The result is this exhilarating book: both a personal meditation on mortality and an exploration of flesh-and-blood existence from crib to oblivion—an exploration that paradoxically prompts a renewed and profound appreciation of life.
Shields begins with the facts of birth and childhood, expertly weaving in anecdotal information about himself and his father. As the book proceeds through adolescence, middle age, old age, he juxtaposes biological details with bits of philosophical speculation, cultural history and criticism, and quotations from a wide range of writers and thinkers—from Lucretius to Woody Allen—yielding a magical whole: the universal story of our bodily being, a tender and often hilarious portrait of one family.
A book of extraordinary depth and resonance, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You’ll Be Dead will move readers to contemplate the brevity and radiance of their own sojourn on earth and challenge them to rearrange their thinking in unexpected and crucial ways.
Final Journeys: A Practical Guide for Bringing Care and Comfort at the End of Life
by Maggie Callanan
from Bantam
For more than two decades, hospice nurse Maggie Callanan has tended to the terminally ill and been a cornerstone of support for their loved ones. Now the coauthor of the classic bestseller Final Gifts passes along the lessons she has learned from the experts—her patients. Here is the guide we all need to understanding the special needs of the dying and those who care for them.
In her work with thousands of families, Maggie Callanan has witnessed the tears, the love—and the confusion and conflict—this final passage can evoke. Now, with honesty, compassion, and even humor, she empowers patients and their families to write the last chapter of their lives with less fear, less pain, and more control—so that all involved can focus their energies on creating the best possible ending.
From supporting a husband or wife faced with the loss of a spouse, to helping a dying mother prepare her children to carry on without her, Callanan’s poignant stories illustrate new ways to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual challenges of this difficult and precious time. She brings welcome clarity to medical and ethical concerns, explaining what to expect at every stage. Each brief chapter also conveys a home truth about making crucial treatment decisions, supporting the patient’s dignity and individuality, and lightening the burden on caregivers.
Final Journeys is designed to be your companion, resource, and advocate. From diagnosis through the final hours, it will help you keep the lines of communication open, get the help you need, and create the peaceful end we all hope for.
Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years with Mom
by D.g. Fulford
from Voice
Funny, poignant, and wise, Designated Daughter: The Bonus Years with Mom is D .G. Fulford's uplifting story of how, after her father's death, she returned home to become her mother's closest companion--a move that brought her more in return than she could ever have expected.
D.G. recalls how she and her mother--a pair who are opposites in almost every way, including how they unload the dishwasher--came together to learn what it means to be best friends, and to need each other in the truest sense. Sharing her experience of the lessons, expectations, and surprises involved with caregiving, D.G. also reveals her unique perspective as daughter, mother, and grandmother--and the wonderful ways to honor four generations of family. D.G.'s eighty-eight-year-old mother, Phyllis Greene, adds her own remarkable voice, contributing her point of view at the end of each chapter.
With humor and grace, D.G. and her mom talk about keeping in touch with D.G.'s two brothers as the entire family copes with the challenges and pleasures of change and transition. Woven throughout are the stories of other mothers and daughters who, despite many hardships and sacrifices, manage to draw from their mutual love and support and embrace these bonus years together as an opportunity to celebrate each other's insight.
This is a heartwarming, refreshing, and inspiring mother-daughter story about sharing the very best years. Moving, sensitive, and above all, honest, Designated Daughter speaks to the joys and privileges of bringing generations together toward the end of life--a hopeful message for mothers and their children everywhere.
The Complete Eldercare Planner, Second Edition: Where to Start, Which Questions to Ask, and How to Find Help
by Joy Loverde
from Three Rivers Press
"The simple truth about elders is this: they want their lives to be validated, and they do not want to die alone," writes eldercare consultant Joy Loverde in her preface to the second edition of The Complete Eldercare Planner. While that desire is entirely valid and compelling, there is an equally real parallel reality: caring for elders is a formidable responsibility, a sometimes daunting maze of financial, medical, personal, legal, and logistical issues. Acutely aware of both truths, Loverde's goal is to provide the caregiver the support and efficient, practical guidance he or she needs to be able to enjoy the often-rewarding and moving experience of caring for an aging loved one. And in an era when the fastest growing segment of the population is those 80 and older (among those, the majority are women), it becomes increasingly important for caregivers, who are themselves one day going to need care, to be informed about eldercare facts.
With a clarity and authority that comes from years of consulting experience, Loverde shares techniques and step-by-step tactics for all aspects of eldercare, from how to first broach the topic with an elder that he or she needs care and finding the best insurance coverage to emergency preparedness and managing the process of dying. Thirteen chapters are organized by a series of plans that instruct and advise the caregiver on how to research, prepare for, and manage a particular issue. An "Action Checklist" and, when applicable, a list of low-cost or free resources punctuate each chapter's end. The chapters on legal matters (estate planning, insurance fraud), money (cost-cutting strategies), and insurance (options beyond Medicare, supplementary coverage, long-term policies) will be particularly helpful to those first grappling with their elder's financial position. While on occasion Loverde's recommendations may seem vague--in some cases there are too many variables for the author be more specific without sacrificing relevancy to all readers--The Complete Eldercare Planner is an accessible, comprehensive, and thoughtful resource that will inspire caregivers in their pursuit of quality health care for the aging. --Rebecca Wright
"Am I doing the right thing?" "I work full-time -- how can I be in two places at once?" "Who's going to pay for Mom's home care?" "How do I bring up sensitive subjects like their money, moving, and not driving?" "Do we need long-term-care insurance?" "Wait! Do I really want Dad to move in?" "Where do my parents keep their legal documents?" "Do they have a will?" Caring for elderly loved ones can be a full-time job--on top of regular work and family responsibilities. How can you cope?
The answer is Joy Loverde's The Complete Eldercare Planner, now fully revised and updated with the latest information to help you plan ahead and manage real-life eldercare crises. Everything you need is on these pages, with essential checklists, practical communication tips, free and low-cost resources, web-sites, step-by-step action plans, questions to ask the professionals, record-keeping forms, and The Documents Locator,™ which helps you to always have access to critical paperwork. Here's a sample of what you'll find inside:
EFFECTIVE PLANNING: Where to start -- Getting caught off-guard
COMMUNICARING: Opening up the dialogue -- Turning conflict into cooperation -- Getting everyone in the family to pitch in
CAREGIVERS: How to tell when your elder needs help -- Sharing the care -- Avoiding burnout
EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS: Managing medications -- Coping with hospitalization
MONEY MATTERS: The cost of long-term care -- Ready cash
LEGAL MATTERS: Estate planning -- Elder advocacy
INSURANCE: Getting the coverage you need -- Beyond Medicare
HOUSING: Home suite home -- When Mom or Dad moves in
SAFE AND SECURE: Minimizing distress over distance -- Accident-proofing the home
TRANSPORTATION: When it is no longer safe to drive -- Alternative transportation
HEALTH AND WELLNESS: Taking charge of health -- Communicating with the doctor
DEATH AND DYING: End-of-life issues -- Saying good-bye
QUALITY OF LIFE: Aging with disability -- Family power
THE DOCUMENTS LOCATOR™
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