Your Caregiver Relationship Contract: How to Navigate the Minefield of New Roles and Expectations

Book excerpt: Have you started picking up groceries for your aging parents while doing your own shopping? Do you go to the doctor with your loved one to be the second set of ears? Does the hair on the back of your neck stands up when you're on the phone with mom, because you feel she is unsafe? Too often, says author Debra Hallisey, we ignore these and other warning signs that our parent or another loved one needs assistance until an event such as a fall or a hospital stay no longer allows us to bury our heads in the sand. Without knowing what to expect as a caregiver, it is difficult to adjust to this caregiver role. In Your Caregiver Relationship Contract, Hallisey, discusses how caregiving changes the everyday lives of the caree, the caregiver, and their circle of loved ones. She uses examples from her own life, as well as many of her clients, to help you work through your elderly parents' expectations, how to set caregiver boundaries, the need to structure hard conversations with mom and dad, and how to pull together a support network for caregiver self-care. Her book aims to bolster these ever-changing roles and provide guidance in navigating the caregiver contract.