ABC News Special Series, Families on the Brink Round-table Discussion on How to Help Aging Parents ABC News – Families on the Brink: What to do about Mom and Dad? As the baby boom generation approaches retirement age, millions of Americans are facing one wrenching question: What to do about Mom and Dad? The country…
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Feel at Peace: Lose the Caregiver Guilt By Carol Bradley Bursack, AgingCare.com Scene one: The first call of the day from your mom you can handle. “Oh, hi, Mom. Yes, it’s a pretty day. Maybe you should walk down the hall and see Marian?” You chat awhile and then say, “Bye. Love you, too.” Five…
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2012 CT Press Club Award-Winning Article… The Mixed-Up Emotions of Caregiving By Laurie Newkirk Dealing with one’s mother’s emotional and/or mental issues is very hard and draining. I find my feelings conflicted, glad to be helping, resentful to have to be doing it, wanting the best for her but not wanting to have to give…
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Leeza Gibbon’s On Caring For Aging Parents: Dealing With a Loved One’s Dementia TODAY Books Leeza Gibbons on the depression she faced while caring for her mother. In her book Take Your Oxygen First, Leeza Gibbons shares the story of her mother, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. With the help of medical professionals, Gibbons…
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Siblings in Denial About a Parent’s Declining Health and Care Needs By Carol Bradley Bursack AgingCare.com Nearly all family caregivers who have siblings have experienced some version of sibling denial in regard to their parents. Whether the denial is the subconscious need to ignore the fact that a parent is declining, or they want to…
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Parenting an Aging Parent and Helping Her Through New Experiences By P. Jefferson While we’re growing up, we eagerly view getting older as the pathway to life’s important “firsts” or milestones—starting school, getting a driver’s license, graduating from high school, then college, getting married, just to name a few. We recognize and often celebrate each…
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Forgiving Your Parent for How They Treated You in the Past By Marlo Sollitto, AgingCare.com Every caregiver has a family history. Some of that history may be unpleasant, disappointing or even abusive. A caregiver’s experience of abuse, neglect and addiction leaves lasting scars. Moving beyond the past is never easy. But what happens when someone in your…
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By Marlo Sollitto, Editor AgingCare.com The demands on a person who is taking care of elderly parents result in a great deal of stress. But if caregivers aren’t careful, they jeopardize their own health and well-being. A study of family caregivers found that those who experience caregiving-related stress have a 63% higher mortality rate than…
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Caregiver Stress Can Make Carers Feel Trapped: What to Do? By Carol Bradley Bursack, Editor-in-Chief ElderCareLink.com Human beings, especially loving human beings, seem to have a penchant for “beating themselves up” over imperfections. This isn’t the place to go into all the various psychological issues that make us feel we need to do everything perfectly,…
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We feel an enormous weight of guilt and sometimes even a sense of failure for our inability to care for aging parents. Guilt, helplessness, and the pain of realizing that you may no longer be suited, or able, to give your elderly parent what he or she needs is an enormous burden for any child…
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