Laura Katz Olson - Elder Care Journey

Praise for Elder Care Journey

After losing two siblings, Laura Katz Olson is left singularly responsible for her physically active and lively mother, Dorothy, a thousand miles away, both young at heart and eagerly bicycling everywhere, but increasingly limited by the normal process of aging. Being an expert on aging and health care, Olson is at first confident as she tries to let her mother age in place. More than anyone, she believes, she should know what to do. Shuttling between Florida and Pennsylvania, Olson settles into a crushing routine, and with each visit she finds incremental downward change in her mothers health. Pulled by daughterly guilt at times, but also a wellspring of love, Olson is frank about the resentment she sometimes experiences.

With a unique perspective that links the systemic flaws in our policy approach to elder care to real-world experience, Olson exposes the challenges we all face or are likely to face. More than a personal story, but nevertheless an extremely compelling one, the book should be read by those confounded and frustrated, and by those without direct knowledge of what quietly repeats itself millions of times a day.

Miriam Laugesen, Department of Health Policy
and Management, Columbia University

In Elder Care Journey , Laura Olson tells the riveting story of helping her aging, disabled mother navigate the system of long-term services and supports. A renowned scholar of aging and long-term care policy, Dr. Olson was nevertheless unprepared for the daily frustrations involved in confronting a bewildering array of obstacles, deceptions, burdensome and repetitive procedures and paperwork, and catch-22s, ranging from the annoying to the downright dangerous. She shows how well-intentioned policies can fall far short of meeting peoples needs, especially for those in greatest need, in a system based on fragmented interests and private-sector profit maximization. Combining scholarly expertise with personal experience, she ends the book with a detailed but highly accessible analysis of the long-term care system and how it could be improved to the benefit of both taxpayers and beneficiaries. This book is a compelling read for policymakers and for students and scholars of health care and social welfare policy, highly recommended for undergraduate and graduate courses. The authors experiences also provide helpful advice to caregivers on what to expect and how to deal with it, as well as reassurance that they are not alone.

Christine L. Day, University of New Orleans

SUNY series in New Political Science

Bradley J. Macdonald, editor

Elder Care Journey

A View from the Front Lines

LAURA KATZ OLSON

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2016 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Excelsior Editions is an imprint of State University of New York Press

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY

www.sunypress.edu

Production, Jenn Bennett

Marketing, Fran Keneston

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Olson, Laura Katz, 1945 author.

Elder care journey : a view from the front lines / Laura Katz Olson.

pages cm. (SUNY series in new political science)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4384-6073-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-1-4384-6075-8 (e-book)

1. Olson, Laura Katz, 1945 2. Aging parentsCareUnited States. 3. Children of aging parentsUnited States. 4. Older womenLong-term careUnited States. 5. CaregiversUnited States. 6. Older peopleLong-term careUnited States. 7. Frail elderlyLong-term careUnited States. 8. Older peopleGovernment policyUnited States. I. Title.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For My Mother, Dorothy Zager Katz,

and Our Zager Clan

I owe a huge professional and intellectual debt to Deborah Stone who has so generously given me her time, support, and insights over the last several years. Her academic vitality, enormous intellect, and stimulating ideas have influenced my thinking considerably.

I have profited from my association with many fine people at New Political Science, an organization that has been an integral part of my academic life since 1973. They have assisted me in countless ways over the decades. There are too many individuals to name separately but I would especially like to thank Bradley McDonald for his backing of this book project at SUNY Press, along with Steve Bronner and John Ehrenberg for their help, encouragement, and friendship over the last several decades. I am also appreciative of the community of scholars I have met through the Aging Politics and Policy Group of the American Political Science Association, specifically Eddie Miller, Michael Gusmano, Bill Brandon, Cynthia Mara, Bill Weissert, Jim Brasfield, Miriam Laugesen, Christine Day, Tom Oliver, Colleen Grogan, and Frank Thompson.

I would like to acknowledge the millions of family caregivers who give selflessly to their care-dependent mothers, fathers, parents-in-law, spouses, children, and friends. The overwhelming demands on their life, finances, and emotional well-being cannot be overstated and must be more fully recognized by political leaders as well as the general public. In addition, during the long road traveled in the world of paid care labor, I have encountered many individuals who are bighearted and tireless, despite the paucity of sufficient financial and societal rewards. My special gratitude is extended to Julie for the tender care she provided to my mother in Florida, her unflagging commitment to us, and the ongoing love that we share. I am indebted to many of the hardworking and compassionate aides and nurses on my mothers NE 2 floor at Gracedale Nursing Home. A very special thanks to Jean, the charge nurse; LPNs Lisa, Debbie, Eva, Courtney, Arlinda and Dola; nurses aides Colleen, Janine, Charlotte, Jeanette, Tina, Sam, Jarett, and Tammy; restorative aides (moms walkers) Michele and Missy; and physical therapists Amy and Judith.

As my mother steadily became the center of my daily existence, I not only was preoccupied with her needs but also talked incessantly about the situation. The creation of this book, and my single-minded obsession with it, only intensified the tedium for everyone around me. My heartfelt thanks to my amazing friends and family who nevertheless stood by me with understanding, support, and companionship. I am especially grateful to Betty Webster Schaefer for her many visits to mom at Gracedale whenever I leave town for short periods of time. Anna Adams and my cousins Sharon Altman, Carol Brachfeld, Art Spar, who commented on various portions of the manuscript, also deserve special mention.