We hear time and time again from professionals that family conversations are best when they happen sooner rather than later. The more involved your aging parents can be in the conversations, the better. Try not to wait until there is declining health or a crisis of some kind.

One of the hardest things for aging parents and their adult children to do is sit down and have a frank discussion about the future. Such conversations are difficult for two principal reasons: they involve acknowledging the realities of aging and mortality, and financial details must be shared.

The book below was written nearly 15 years ago! It is Difficult Conversations by Stone, Patton, and Heen. Please take a look at the nice summary I found. I think you will find it timely and priceless!This book, based on fifteen years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, walks you through a proven step-by-step approach for how to have better and less stressful outcomes from your most difficult conversations.

On July 4th, our country celebrates Independence Day. A day where we celebrate our country’s freedoms, our rights and liberties as citizens. What would happen if our freedoms and independence were taken away from us? For the elderly, that happens everyday.

"Slow Medicine is just this caring process of slowing down, being patient, coordinating care, and remaining faithful to the end. Families necessarily bear the greatest responsibility in surmounting difficulties to create this bond of trust and security for their loved ones.

Describing the importance of observing and being sensitive to our elders’ needs, Dr. McCullough outlined the Eight Stations of Late Life as a way to understand the changes they are going through. To read the entire article, click here

It started out only as a job.... but ended up much more than that.I began working for our Local Council as what was classified as a Home Carer. This position was primarily to help people with health problems, or other reasons to stay in their own homes.

"The Compassionate Life: Walking the Path of Kindness" is another book I recommend after attending a lecture by it's author Marc Ian Barasch at the NAPGCM conference in Seattle.  The following is an excerpt from his website www.compassionatelife.com:With a keen balance of hope and skepticism, Marc Barasch sets out on a journey to the heart of compassion, discovering its power to change who we are and the society we have become.

I recently heard John Sloan, MD speak at the NAPGCM conference in Seattle.  I highly recommend his book "A Bitter Pill: How the Medical System is Failing the Elderly"."The medical system is set up to help people, but it does the opposite for most of the people I look after,” writes Dr. John Sloan, a family physician who restricts his practice to housebound, mainly older frail persons.