Elderly Parent Caregiver Guide: 101 Tips For Adult Children To Love, Support, and Care For Aging Parents

By HowExpert

Elderly Parent Caregiver 101 is the ultimate guide for adult children who are or will become their parents’ caregivers. Filled with valuable information and ideas, this book offers hope, support, and plenty of practical advice for anyone caring for their elderly parents. Each chapter describes a different area of caregiving, including:

• Becoming a Caregiver
• Medical Providers
• Facility Care
• Caregiver Support
• Financial Concerns
• Medical Devices
• Special Circumstances
• End of Life

As the author guides you through the maze of caregiving, she shares her knowledge as a nurse and examples from her own journey of caregiving for her elderly parents. This book defines medical terms, explains insurance options, and highlights the many tools available to caregivers. Through these topics, you’ll gain the understanding needed to be a caregiver for your elderly parents. Each section offers helpful information and true insights only a caregiver can provide. The tips in every chapter are practical facts and advice for every area of your caregiving.

You are not alone in your caregiving journey. Don’t struggle without having the best resource for knowing everything you need to know about caring for your elderly parents. This guide is your trusted companion for that journey.

About the Expert
Rebecca Rehak, LPN, is a nurse, writer, and public speaker who has worked in the medical field for over 20 years, including kidney dialysis, community health, and Memory Care. As a public speaker, she helped advance programs for dialysis access care and currently teaches science camps for children. Her work has touched the lives of thousands of people. After caring for both her elderly parents, she now devotes much of her time to writing articles, blogs, and providing support for other caregivers. She and her husband live with their big, furry dog in Wisconsin.

The author would like to thank the doctors and staff at Froedtert Hospital, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and Horizon Home Care and Hospice for the wonderful care they provided to both her parents.

HowExpert publishes quick 'how to' guides on all topics from A to Z by everyday experts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HowExpert
• Release date: Mar 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781950864256

HowExpert

HowExpert publishes quick 'how to' guides on all topics from A to Z by everyday experts.

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HowExpert Presents

Elderly Parent Caregiver Guide

101 Tips For Adult Children To Love, Support, and Care For Aging Parents

HowExpert with Rebecca Rehak

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www.HowExpert.com

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Table of Contents

Recommended Resources

Chapter 1: Becoming a Caregiver

Chapter 2: Medical Providers

Chapter 3: Facility Care

Chapter 4: Support for Caregivers

Chapter 5: Financial Concerns

Chapter 6: Medical Devices

Chapter 7: Special Circumstances

Chapter 8: End of Life

About the Expert

Recommended Resources

Chapter 1: Becoming a Caregiver

Our parents raised us. From the time we were born, they were there to fix problems small and large and supported us through every stage of our lives. And then comes a time when they need our help and support, and we become the caregivers. It seems like a daunting task, especially if we are also raising our own families at the same time.

How do you become a caregiver for this stage of your parents’ lives? This is new territory. Growing old is your future, not something you’ve done before. How do you navigate the complex world of elderly housing, financial, emotional, and medical needs? By learning from those that have already become caregivers, you will be better prepared to provide the best caregiving possible to your elderly parents.

No Warning

For some, becoming a caregiver starts without warning. The same parents who babysat for your child last weekend are now at the hospital, where your mother is crying in the waiting room, and your father is having x-rays for a broken hip. Maybe your father calls to tell you that he’s been diagnosed with cancer. Or your mother didn’t answer the door when you came for a visit because she had a stroke and can’t get out of her chair.

Becoming a caregiver without warning is a huge shock. Your healthy and active parents can quickly go from being independent to needing care after a fall or a medical emergency or diagnosis. No one feels prepared for the sudden change, including your parents.

Everyone’s immediate concern is for the crisis at hand. But elderly people don’t always recover from medical emergencies as easily as younger people do. The loss of mobility from a broken bone or serious illness can have devastating consequences for the elderly. Even a few days of bed rest starts to weaken muscles, lower blood volume, and damage bones. Prolonged bed rest creates a vicious cycle where damage from rest needed to recover makes a full recovery even more difficult.

When a parent suddenly becomes ill, you do need to focus on their immediate needs. The first goal of the doctors is to repair or limit the damage caused by a sudden illness. But the next step will be recovery, and that’s when being a caregiver really begins. Not every medical crisis will have a long recovery, but knowing that it could is the start of being a good caregiver.

When my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer and brain metastases, our lives sped into high gear. First, we learned about what options she had. Then I began the process of being her caregiver throughout her treatment. I wasn’t thinking about the full scale of what that meant at first. It became a long road. When my father was diagnosed with bladder cancer two months later, it felt like I was on twin roller coasters. Their illnesses were similar but also different enough to need two separate caregiving plans.

Slow Decline

Becoming a caregiver can also sneak up on you. You start to notice that your parents’ home isn’t as clean as it used to be, or that their refrigerator is a lot emptier. Maybe you’ve started to cut the lawn when you visit because your father says he’s too tired to do it. If you’ve noticed your parents are losing weight and you have started bringing food when you visit, you have become a caregiver.

It’s often difficult to realize that your parents