"But I don't want eldercare!" Helping your parents stay as strong as they can as long as they can

Written from an American perspective, this book tackles head on the powerful myths and discriminatory attitudes that underlie one of the unspoken moral disasters of contemporary life: that so many older people die, before their time, cut off from their family and their homes, unhappy and alone.

Drawing on the author's professional expertise as an independent living consultant and a decade of caring for his mother, the book offers down to earth, practical advice aimed at keeping elderly parents in their own homes for as long as possible. Having identified eight key elder care support 'rules', it explains how best to gauge the type and level of support required by an elderly parent covering both physical and psychological needs. Placing a strong emphasis on the quality of life, it describes how to avoid common assumptions about old age, how to determine what is 'normal' and 'abnormal' for the parent concerned and when and how to intervene. It describes the importance of forward planning in connection with financial and health matters and briefly describes arrangements such as the power of attorney, living wills and advance healthcare directives.