What Do You Do When Your Parents Live Forever? A Practical Guide to Caring for the Elderly, by Dan and Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok. Winchester, UK: O Books; 2007. 161 pages, paperback, $19.95.
This slim volume contains 161 rather small pages but an astonishing number (65) of vignettes that are succinct (typically a half to three fourths of a page) and interesting, and provide appropriate real-life examples of book content. I found myself reading along quite contentedly and finishing the book in a little over 2 hours. This guide gives an inexperienced reader an appealing introduction to many issues involved in caregiving for an older person.
The book's major flaws lie outside of the case studies. One author, Dan, grew up in the United States and his wife, Lavinia, in England (as told in a brief and interesting introduction) and consequently the reader gets content that may apply to one country or the other-sometimes delineated, sometimes not.
More importantly, though, the book's content is insufficient to adequately cover one country, much less 2. There are content areas that are presented in one small page, such as hospice, and other content areas that are completely missing. If the authors had concentrated on the United States alone, for instance, maybe they would have mentioned the aging network-and the area agencies on aging in particular-and how it is relevant to caregiving in this country.
Every topic mentioned screams out for more detail, which is why the several caregiving guides on my bookshelf are thick with content. The few sentences on reverse mortgages in this book, for instance, make no mention of their high costs or other cautions. Nor is there mention of long-term care insurance and its possible pitfalls. There are many important caregiving and long-term care topics not mentioned. Perhaps this skimpy content contributed to the authors' decision to dispense with an Index in the back of the book.
This guide could stand to be more up-to-date, despite its 2007 publication. The brief overview of Medicare does not mention Part D prescription coverage that began in January 2006. The skimpy sections on long-term care alternatives make no mention of Green Houses or Eden Alternatives or the many innovations taking place in assisted living facilities.
The book also could have benefited from a good copy-editor as well. Medicaid is spelled Medicade on several occasions and there is a sentence on page 63 that is totally butchered. Having said all that, the authors write very well and you can get a good feel for many issues that are likely to arise in your quest to help frail parents, or other relatives and friends, negotiate the difficult challenges of frailty in old age. I also like the Afterword, which is composed of 10 one-sentence commandments.
If you like detail, though, you need to go elsewhere.
David Haber, PhD
John and Janice Fisher Distinguished Professor of Wellness and Gerontology Fisher Institute Ball State University Muncie, Ind