Rounding the Circle of Love: Growing Up As She Grows Old might be described as a “how to” book that provides family care givers with essential guidelines. It lives up to that “promise” during the very first chapter by presenting a survey instrument which should help care givers determine if they can keep their elder at home. Are their financial and other resources sufficient to handle this challenge? Do they have enough support?
It then discusses means by which care givers can prevent the stresses they encounter from depleting them. Respite, day care (for elders) and support groups are outlined. Also detailed: strategies for handling the medical, financial and legal issues that care givers face.
One chapter even discusses guiding elders toward viewing adaptive devise, such as canes, etc., more “positively.” Their safety might depend upon their coming to perceive these devices as friends which can help them remain independent rather than as impediments.
The book, however, goes beyond simply issuing practical advice. It is also thought provoking, or at least attempts to be. That dynamic comes into play as some of the experts who are quoted “question orthodoxies.” For example, the thought that there might be no firm distinction between normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease is discussed. And this dialogue is followed by a chapter on means, such as art therapy or exercise, by which even persons who have some dementia can be kept mentally vibrant.
Read the Excerpt!
Alzheimer’s might be termed today’s most dreaded diagnosis. But this quote from Dr. Peter Whitehouse presents a viewpoint that some might find “reassuring” in this regard. It indicates that there might be no firm divide between brain aging which we are all experiencing and Alzheimer’s.
“People with so-called Alzheimer’s can be as much a victim of labeling as they are of their disease,” Dr. Whitehouse said. “We should work from the assumption that everybody is experiencing brain aging and we are all in this together. Because once you start labeling people as having Alzheimer’s you get two groups of people - people who have Alzheimer’s and those who are terrified of getting it.”
Harriet Tramer has worked for more than thirty years as both a journalist and a teacher (college instructor in Urban Studies Departments). And she finds that this duality fits quite well as they both demand communication skills. She is the author of All Bets on Me: Three Stories of Survival, the novel, Sara's Place, and Rounding the Circle of Love.
She has come to believe that teaching Urban Studies represents a good preparation for writing a book on caring for the elderly because people who administer cities must become financial magicians, pulling money out of nowhere to provide services. Family care givers must, likewise, do the same thing.
You can find Harriet online at http://www.roundingthecircleoflove.com
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