Caregiver
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Talk with family members about getting additional help.

Explain that you need some help so you can stay healthy and reduce some stress. At the same time, listen to any concerns your parent has about bringing someone in.

• Sometimes members of the family will disagree as to whether outside services are needed.
• Family members may not be aware of everything you do to take care of your parent.

Continue the conversation and communicate why it is important both for you and for your parent.

You can get additional help from both formal and informal services.

Formal services include:

• geriatric case manager
• home health agency providers
• home health aids
• nurses
• physical and occupational therapists

Informal help could come from:

• neighbors
• people from the church or synagogue
• friends
• a housecleaning service.

See also: Links to Other Helpful Websites

Links to other sites with information on this topic:

How to care for aging parents, by Virginia Morris & Robert Butler (1996). Workman Publishing Company.
This book covers a very wide range of caregiving issues, including how to arrange for care, how to communicate with your parents and siblings about caregiving issues, and quality of relationships.

Mothers and their adult daughters: mixed emotions, enduring bonds, by Karen L. Fingerman (2002). Prometheus Books. (Paperback)
Based on interviews with forty-eight mothers over the age of seventy and their adult daughters, Dr. Fingerman begins with an overview of the mother-daughter relationship. She also discusses the positive features of this bond and various theories about its social and psychological nature, and examines the problems encountered between mothers and daughters.