Holding the Net
In Holding the Net, Melanie Merriman, PhD – a hospice expert and consultant – suggests that our society needs to acknowledge the very real but often-ignored time in life between active independent living and end-of-life. She dubs this period the “tightrope of aging” and demonstrates it through a first-hand account of caring for her fiercely independent, aging mother. This memoir also offers practical details about the effects of aging on the body and mind, living arrangements and health care decisions, and surviving rehab. It also challenges the notion that anyone can be an expert when it comes to caring for an aging parent, and encourages us to simply do our best.
greenwriterspress.com
Mikey and Me: Life with My Exceptional Sister
Mikey & Me is Teresa Sullivan’s tribute to her beloved older sister, Michele (‘Mikey’), who was blind and lived with growing cognitive and behavioural challenges. Written with clarity and poignancy, Sullivan shines a light on the complicated issues involved in caring for a sibling with profound developmental disabilities and how young children must become honorary adults and caregivers, grappling with the same conflicting emotions their parents experience. Sullivan interweaves her exceptional sister’s journey with her own; affirming the grace and difficulty of Mikey’s life, and its indelible effect on her family.
shewritespress.com
What Living as a Resident Can Teach Long-Term Care Staff
Even the most caring staff can fail to appreciate the effects of challenges that residents in long-term care can face on a daily basis. This book introduces a program, called Through the Looking Glass, which builds staff empathy for residents’ experiences by having them simulate a diagnosis and live alongside residents. The lessons learned create more compassionate caregivers, improve care practices, and enhance well-being for both staff and residents. Measurable benefits include: elimination of personal body alarms, decreased falls, reduced use of psychotropic drugs, improved resident health and well-being, and increased staff retention and satisfaction.
healthpropress.com
1,000 Unforgettable Senior Moments, 2nd ed.
Celebrating history’s greatest mental lapses, this is a perfect impulse bookthat’s not just outlandishly funny, but also a source of great comfort. After all, having a senior moment puts you in the company of Einstein, Lincoln, Beethoven, Newton, Toscanini, and a whole assortment of presidents, poets, philosophers, popes, and Nobel Prize–winners. Now revised in its second edition (with more than 20 percent new stories) 1,000 Unforgettable Senior Moments is a fabulously witty gift for anyone of a certain age.
workman.com
