Resources for the Family Caregiver of Aging Parents
Books
Every day at Borders, AARP members receive 10% off list price paperbacks and 35% off AARP titles. Just show your AARP membership card at the checkout or go online to borders.com/aarp.
- Caring for Your Parents: The Complete Family Guide (AARP Title)
By Hugh Delehanty and Elinor Ginzler, Sterling; Revised expanded edition (2008)
- That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine: Family Caregiving with a Nurse Care Manager Approach
By Daniel Tobin, M.D. with Karen Lindsay, Life Institute Books (2008)
- A Family Caregiver Speaks Up: It Doesn’t Have to Be This Hard
By Suzanne Mintz, Capital Books; Revised edition (2008)
- How to Care for Aging Parents
By Virginia Morris, Workman Publishing Company; Revised expanded edition (2004)
- My Mother, Your Mother: Embracing “Slow Medicine,” The Compassionate Approach to Caring for Your Aging Loved Ones
By Dennis McCullough, M.D., Harper; 1st edition (2008)
- The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for Persons with Alzheimer Disease, Related Dementing Illnesses, and Memory Loss in Later Life (also available in Spanish)
By Nancy L. Mace, Peter V. Rabins MD, 6th edition, Johns Hopkins University Press (2007)
Websites
- Alzheimer’s
- Cancer
- Cardiac Health
- COPD
- Advance Care Planning Associations
- Aging with Dignity
Provides the Five Wishes Living Will, legal in 33 states ($5 fee).
1-888-5-WISHES, www.agingwithdignity.org
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Guidelines on advance directives. www.hcfa.gov/pubforms/advdir.htm
- American Medical Association
Booklet on advance directives.
515 N. State Street
Chicago, IL 60610 (312) 464-5000 www.ama-assn.org/public/booklets/livgwill.htm
- The Midwest Bioethics Center
Makes available Caring Conversations
(www.midbio.org/workbook.pdf), a workbook to help start conversations, including advance healthcare planning and advance directive forms.
1021-1025 Jefferson Street
Kansas City, MO 64105
1-800-344-3829 www.midbio.org
- Partnership for Caring: America’s Voices for the Dying
Provides free, state-specific living wills.
PFC Publications – Publications Office
325 East Oliver Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Hotline: 1-800-989-9455 (option 2) www.partnershipforcaring.org
- Caregiving/Caring Road
Interactive site offering support and information for caregivers, including chat rooms, links, and a disease directory. www.caringroad.com
- Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care
New York Beth Israel Medical Center has created the Caregiver Resource Directory to help family caregivers feel less alone and overwhelmed. www.stoppain.org
- The Family Caregiver Alliance
Provides resources, including information about specific diseases and related public policy news.
690 Market Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94104
(415) 434-3388 www.Caregiver.org
- The American Pain Foundation
Provides a survey to screen yourself for depression and access to online support. www.painfoundation.org
Health Tips and Articles
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005, the federal government’s science-based advice to promote health and reduce risk of chronic diseases through nutrition and physical activity, has been released. This can be viewed at www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines.
Source: News Release, New Dietary Guidelines Will Help Americans Make Better Food Choices, Live Healthier Lives,
www.hhs.gov/news/press/2005pres/20050112.html.
The American Dietetic Association developed this year’s theme, “Eat Smart, Stay Healthy,” as a way to suggest that Americans be smart about the foods they eat, know what they are eating, and make wise food choices. FDA has developed a number of consumer brochures that may help older Americans be smart about the foods they eat, including Growing Older, Eating Better, Eating for a Healthy Heart, and Keep Your Food Safe. These brochures may be viewed at http://www.fda.gov/opacom/catalog/alpha.html.
Source: The Administration on Aging, Nutrition, www.aoa.gov/eldfam/Nutrition/Nutrition.asp.
To avoid getting the flu, or a severe case of it, doctors recommend that older people get a flu shot each year. Studies have shown that a flu shot reduces hospitalization by about 70 percent, and death by about 85 percent among aging adults not in nursing homes. Among nursing home residents, the flu shot reduces the risk of hospitalization by about 50 percent, the risk of pneumonia by about 60 percent, and the risk of death by 80 percent. Source: The Administration on Aging, Promoting Healthy Lifestyles, Vaccine Related Immunizations, www.aoa.gov/eldfam//Healthy_Lifestyles/Vaccine/vaccine.asp.
Falling is the number-one fear among older Americans, but practicing tai chi twice a week may improve balance within three months.
Source: Gandel, C, AARP Magazine, Going Steady, July-August 2003. The full article may be found at www.aarpmagazine.org/health/Articles/a2003-08-20-going_steady.html.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designed, created, and implemented the Screen for Life campaign to inform men and women, aged 50 or older, about the importance of having regular colorectal cancer screening tests.
Source: Government Guide, Screen for Life: National Colorectal Cancer Action Campaign, www.governmentguide.com/govsite.adp?bread=*Main&url=http%3A//www.governmentguide.com/ams/clickThruRedirect.adp%3F55076483%2C16920155%2Chttp%3A//www.cdc.gov
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and The Agency for Healthcare Research and quality have put together The Pocket Guide to Staying Healthy at 50+. This guide will help you learn to communicate with your doctors well as teach you which checkups, tests, and shots you need, and provide you with more resources.
This can be obtained at www.ahrq.gov/ppip/50plus/50plus.pdf
A new American Cancer Society study shows eating large amounts of red meat or processed meat markedly raises a person’s risk of developing colon cancer. Source: The American Cancer Society, New Look at Red Meat and Colon Cancer, www.cancer.org/docroot/SPC/SPC_0.1.asp.
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