Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-167) and index.
Contents:
Care receivers : an intimate profile -- Start the conversation -- Take care of yourself first -- Growing old and feeling ill : a permanent condition? -- Getting up close and personal -- Driving through the fog -- "Give me the keys" -- Leaving home -- Destination : your house -- A million miles away : receiving care from a distance -- Circling the wagons -- Where is the love? -- What about God? : is he still listening to me at this age? -- The end of the road : death as life's final chapter.
Summary:
Many books address the issue of caring for one's aging parents, but this will be the first book to consider the topic from the parents' perspective. Cheryl A. Kuba proposes an entirely unique approach to this aspect of gerontology: expressing the voices of care-receivers themselves. The dependent elderly are a wealth of information, Kuba discovers, and if we listen to them, we will be better able to help them. The 22.4 million elderly people being cared for in the United States comprise the fastest growing segment of the population, making the discovery of new approaches to care-giving more important than ever. This book draws on numerous interviews with aging people, and will discuss common care-giver mistakes and misinterpretations, what a care-giver should expect when an aging parent moves in, and how to care for an aging parent from afar. The book includes helpful resources for those caring for an aging parent in a variety of situations. Kuba explains such phenomena as guilt, role reversal, changing family dynamics, financial stress, and caring for oneself while caring for another. She also addresses the gendering of care-giving and the myth that Americans abandon the elderly.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.