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When Jane Gross found herself suddenly thrust into a caretaker role for her eighty-five year-old mother, she was forced to face challenges that she had never imagined. As she and her younger brother struggled to move her mother into an assisted living facility, deal with seemingly never-ending costs, and adapt to the demands on her time and psyche, she learned valuable and important lessons. Here, the longtime New York Times expert on the subject of elderly care and the founder of the New Old Age blog shares her frustrating, heartbreaking, enlightening, and ultimately redemptive journey, providing us along the way with valuable information that she wishes she had known earlier. We learn why finding a general practitioner with a specialty in geriatrics should be your first move when relocating a parent; how to deal with Medicaid and Medicare; how to understand and provide for your own needs as a caretaker; and much more. Wise, smart, and ever-helpful, A Bittersweet Season is an essential guide to caring for aging parents.
Includes chapters on the following subjects:
Finding Our Better Selves
The Myth of Assisted Living
The Vestiges of Family Medicine
The Best Doctors Money Can Buy
The Biology, Sociology, and Psychology of Aging
Therapeutic Fibs
"Unique and lovely. . . . How wonderful to have [Gross's] mix of sage advice, pithy insights and practical discoveries at hand." --Abraham Verghese, author of "Cutting for Stone"
"Nothing can fully prepare you for the overwhelming experience of caring for your elderly parents, but Jane Gross's new book, " A Bittersweet Season, "comes awfully close . . . Gross is an incisive critic of our systems and institutions." --"The Seattle Times"
"A forthright story and trenchant advice. . . . Intimate and affecting." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"A smart and highly detailed book about navigating the complex eldercare system as it related to healthcare, insurance and end of life. . . . The kind of book social workers might suggest to the family who craves more perspective about the logistical issues mentioned above. . . . Readers will find they are engaged by how much they learn in reading Gross's account." --"Psychology Today"
"Hugely informative, and a gripping read." --Betty Rollin, author of "Last Wish"
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""A Bittersweet Season" is sure to become required reading for anyone with an elderly parent who depends on long-term care. It's also a worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in America's health care system as it braces for the demands posed by demographic changes that include a sharp rise in the group now termed the "old old." --"The Huffington Post"
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"An invaluable guide. . . . Excellent. . . . . Jane Gross has taken her own painful experiences and worked hard to give needed help to us all." --"Commonweal Magazine"
"With great insight and empathy, Jane Gross guides us through one of the most difficult of all life transitions--the decline and death of our parents. Not only does she provide a wonderfully helpful guide for how and what to do, and when. She also enables us to understand what our parents need, and what we ourselves need, during this passage." --Robert B. Reich, author of "Aftershock"
ISBN: 9780307472403
ISBN-10: 030747240X
Audience:
General
Format:
Paperback
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 434
Published: 1st May 2012
Dimensions (cm): 20.4 x 13.1
x 2.4
Weight (kg): 0.336
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