Are you new to taking care of a parent or loved one? Or thinking about it?
You're not alone. Millions of people like you already do it.
It can be a joy to take care of your mom, dad, or other loved ones. But it can also be confusing, frustrating, stressful, and exhausting. Especially if you go into caregiving unprepared.
A short step-by-step guide to urgent decisions and getting help for your elderly parent who suddenly can no longer live alone. Tips, who-to-call, where to go and checklists, for Day-1, the first week, first month, and the first year. Topics on caregivers, caregiving, in-home care, nursing homes, assisted living and other senior housing, medicare, financial planning, and real estate tips on how to sell the home.
You're in common company with many others who go through the same calamity when your aging parent(s) cannot continue living alone at home. Perhaps you and your family had the best-laid plans. Everything was on course, on schedule, and under control. You all knew that sometime within the next few years the family would likely need to arrange some form of professional or institutional care for Mom. But for now, Dad was taking care of Mom, who is somewhat disabled, in their home where you grew up four states away.
Then at 1:15 AM, during the wee hours last night, you got "the call." Dad suddenly passed away. The ambulance took Mom to the hospital for now. Mom was frantically distressed, but they are calming her. They are saying what you already know, there is no prospect of her going back home to live alone. She has nowhere to go. Your family was caught by surprise.
Suddenly your family is engulfed by a furious sequence of events that seem quite beyond your control.
Hopefully, you're reading this on the plane or in the car as you rush to your Mom or Dad. Read on. We have much to do...
