The Reluctant Caregivers
Subtitle: Learning to Care for a Loved One with Alzheimer's
Publisher: Bergin & Garvey
Published: March 30, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 168
ISBN-13: 9780897897112
Subjects: Home nursing & caring; Patients; Diseases - Alzheimer's & Dementia; Social Science; Consumer Health; Sociology; Popular works; Eldercare; Social Science / Gerontology; Gerontology; Alzheimer's disease; Care
First sentence: As members of the baby-boom generation, my husband and I should have expected the caregiving role.
Description: Although Hendershott has spent many years teaching and writing about the sociological aspects of aging, she writes that none of this could have prepared me for the overwhelming challenge of caring for my own mother-in-law in my home. She introduces baby boomers as the unexpected caregivers of the coming decades. The process of family denial about symptoms, work-family conflict, and the unique problems of children of caregivers are explored in an effort to find solutions to the caregiving challenge.

Social science research is made accessible and is coupled with anecdotal information gleaned from interactions with other caregivers and personal experience. Throughout the book, Hendershott shows family caregivers that by gaining insight into their motivations for caregiving and by drawing from family support and help from the community, they can move beyond maladaptive caregiving coping styles, to a rewarding reality-based caregiving experience.