Mindszenthy - Parenting Your Parents

Parenting Your Parents is a very valuable addition to the bookshelves of any families who are caring for aging relatives, as well as for physicians and other health professionals who care for older people. The book is a unique mixture of personal wisdom, case examples, and practical information that will assist caregivers of frail older people with the approaches and resources they need to deal with the everyday realities of a most difficult and challenging role.

Joseph G. Ouslander, MD, Professor of Medicine and Nursing, Emory University School of Medicine; Director, Emory Center for Health in Aging; Director, Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, and chief medical officer, Wesley Woods Center

The use of case vignettes to discuss the complexities of parent care works very well. It is easy for caregivers to find a vignette that matches their current dilemma and read a well-balanced discussion by experts in geriatrics. It is a great resource to read cover to cover and to refer back to as new situations evolve.

Jane F. Potter, MD, Harris Professor of Geriatric Medicine, University of Nebraska Medical Center; President, American Geriatrics Society

Parenting Your Parents is about caring for aging loved ones. Through vignettes of family interactions, sons and daughters and friends and clinicians grapple with relationships, survival, and finality. This book is highly recommended as a valuable and readable resource providing us with insight, wisdom, and reassurance.

Dr. Richard Neufeld, Vice President of Medical Services, Jewish Home and Hospital; Associate Clinical Professor, Dept. of Geriatrics and Adult Development, Mt. Sinai Medical School

As I was reading this new edition of Parenting Your Parents , I was reminded of the extraordinarily influential book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Benjamin Spock. His book brought about a major change in attitude toward the care of children. This immensely readable work has many of the characteristics of Spocks work. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Parenting Your Parents is its global appeal to a broad spectrum of family members and health care providers. The personal experiences described by the authors reflect the stresses that even experienced practitioners can have in coping with difficult situations. The Resource section is thorough and practical. The authors fill a vital need to optimize quality of life for our aging population and ease the burden on their caregivers.

Dr. Jerome Kowal, Professor Emeritus of Geriatric Medicine, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine

Everyone who has aging parents should read this exceptionally sensitive, clearly written, highly informative exploration of the often vexing, emotionally challenging task of providing the care and dignity that aging parents deserve. Illuminating, touching case examples and insightful commentary about them provide extremely important lessons that help readers identify and cope with the salient psychological issues involved. In addition, the authors provide an exhaustive guide to invaluable resources and a system for identifying all pertinent financial, health-related, and personal information required to plan properly for the care and well being of ones aging parent(s).

Steven R. Sabat, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University,Washington, D.C., Author of The Experience of Alzheimers Disease: Life Through a Tangled Veil (Blackwell, 2001) and co-editor of Dementia: Mind, Meaning, and the Person (Oxford University Press, 2006)

Whether your aging parent is weighing the risks of major surgery, becoming romantically involved with another resident of her nursing home, or resisting moving to assisted living despite progressive frailty, you will encounter another family in the throes of a similar dilemma in Parenting Your Parents . As you read the more than twenty rich narratives in this compelling guide, you will come to understand the older persons perspective, the struggles of his family, and the health care professionals point of view.

Muriel R. Gillick, MD, Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School; Author of The Denial of Aging: Perpetual Youth, Eternal Life, and Other Dangerous Fantasies

Parenting Your Parents is not just for family caregivers. I recommend it to all social service and health care professionals who work with seniors. This thorough book articulately presents aging challenges and solutions in a family context a perspective too often ignored by practitioners.

Gail Reisman, Ph.D., Geriatric Care Manager and Educator, RSCR California, Inc.

This book offers a unique and sometimes moving blend of information, insight, compassion, advocacy, and humor. It should be a valuable resource for families needing to help frail parents who have many things wrong at once, but who must deal with health care systems that largely prefer people to get sick with one illness at a time.

Kenneth Rockwood, MD, FRCPC, Professor of Geriatric Medicine, Dalhousie University, Past President, the Canadian Society of Geriatric Medicine

Copyright

Copyright Bart J. Mindszenthy and Dr. Michael Gordon, 2013

Parenting Your Parents is a registered trademark owned by The Mindszenthy & Roberts Corp. of Toronto.

To the best of the authors knowledge all information and resources in this book are believed to be correct at the time of drafting its contents.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Editor: Britanie Wilson

Design: Jennifer Scott

Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Mindszenthy, Bart J., 1946-, author

Parenting your parents : straight talk about aging in the family / Bart J. Mindszenthy and Dr. Michael Gordon. -- 3rd edition.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-4597-1061-0 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-4597-1062-7 (pdf).--ISBN 978-1-4597-1063-4 (epub)

1. Aging parents--Care. 2. Parent and adult child. 3. Adult children of aging parents--Family relationships.
I. Gordon, Michael, 1941-, author II. Title.

HQ1063.6.M55 2013 306.874 C2013-903909-0 C2013-903910-4

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

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