Lots of us worry about our parents as they age, and how we can help them.
Our Longevity Explorer community explores topics like:
are we meant to become like parents to our parents;
the fine balance between helping and bossing;
when should they stop driving?
how to help them manage their medications;
can telepresence help stay in touch;
and more.
It's a pretty common scenario at present. Your elderly parent, who lives at home — or in a nice senior living facility — is under "lockdown" for the foreseeable future. You can't visit. They are not super tech-savvy and don't regularly use Facetime, or Skype, or Zoom. And you are wondering what you can do to … Read more
Dignity of the elder must not be disregarded in the name of protection: whether we are dealing with the difficult issues of how to convince dad to give up the car keys, mom’s need for placement in a facility, or fear of money being improperly acquired by a scammer. The question posed is how to maximize the preservation of dignity in the face of true need for protection of the elder? This article addresses the issue as it relates to financial abuse of elders, but the principles are equally applicable in other situations.
Over the last 18 months I have talked with literally hundreds of people who have realized they now have an extra “job” that they were not expecting: engaging one way or another in looking out for an aging parent. Many of them wanted a “guide” to Caring for Aging Parents, and asked for recommendations. Sure enough, there are a number of books on aging parents on Amazon. I decided I wanted to find the most popular, and then read them and see whether I could identify a handful of them to recommend next time someone asks for a Guide to Aging Parents. This article is the first installment in my journey and focuses on which are the top selling books in this category (presumably the ones others have found most relevant).
Going beyond money management, part of our daily work includes having conversations about the complexities of providing care for aging family members, the range of costs for providing this care and the difficulty families have in planning around these issues. Yet, most people don’t think about such things until there is a crisis.