There are a lot of issues to consider as our loved ones get older. From in-home care to assisted living facilities, there are myriad options available - and each person's needs are unique. Family members need a resource that will answer all of their questions and ease them through this often complicated transition. This helpful handbook guides concerned children as they: decide which level of care is best for their parent; maintain communication and discuss difficult topics; handle home safety issues; manage transportation; find and work with a primary-care physician; navigate insurance paperwork; handle legal issues and questions; and other sensitive issues. From setting up a support network to avoiding scams, this informative guide will help a family decide on - and implement - the best care options for their loved ones.

"Practical advice you can trust from the experts at AARP"--Cover.

Thoroughly updated and expanded, a compassionate, single-volume reference to the many emotional, legal, financial, medical, and logistical issues associated with caring for aging parents covers such areas as nursing homes, finances, finding a good doctor, legal arrangements, redefining parental relationships, and handling emotional challenges. Original.

Working Daughter provides a roadmap for women trying to navigate caring for aging parents and their careers. Using the author’s own experiences as a prime example, it’s ideal for readers who want straight talk and real advice about the challenges and rewards of eldercare while managing a career and family.

If you provide care for your elderly parents, this book will give you the helpful information you need. Includes resource lists.

Just a few of the vitally important lessons in caring for your aging parent—and yourself—from Jane Gross in A Bittersweet Season As painful as the role reversal between parent and child may be for you, assume it is worse for your mother or father, so take care not to demean or humiliate them. Avoid hospitals and emergency rooms, as well as multiple relocations from home to assisted living facility to nursing home, since all can cause dramatic declines in physical and cognitive well-being among the aged. Do not accept the canard that no decent child sends a parent to a nursing home. Good nursing home care, which supports the entire family, can be vastly superior to the pretty trappings but thin staffing of assisted living or the solitude of being at home, even with round-the-clock help. Important Facts Every state has its own laws, eligibility standards, and licensing requirements for financial, legal, residential, and other matters that affect the elderly, including qualification for Medicare. Assume anything you understand in the state where your parents once lived no longer applies if they move. Many doctors will not accept new Medicare patients, nor are they legally required to do so, especially significant if a parent is moving a long distance to be near family in old age. An adult child with power of attorney can use a parent’s money for legitimate expenses and thus hasten the spend-down to Medicaid eligibility. In other words, you are doing your parent no favor—assuming he or she is likely to exhaust personal financial resources—by paying rent, stocking the refrigerator, buying clothes, or taking him or her to the hairdresser or barber.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 149-150).