Rachelle Zukerman 
Eldercare For Dummies 

Cope with legal, financial, and medical issues

Minimize anxiety and stress and make the later years golden

Need help caring for an elderly loved one? This sensitive, reassuring guide provides strategies for assessing older persons’ needs, arranging for care, ensuring their safety, and enhancing quality of life – all while respecting their dignity. You’ll see how to manage physical disabilities and chronic health problems, evaluate nursing homes, and help elders control their destinies.

The Dummies Way
* Explanations in plain English
* ‘Get in, get out’ information
* Icons and other navigational aids
* Tear-out cheat sheet
* Top ten lists
* A dash of humor and fun

Table of Content

Introduction.

Part I: Entering the World of Caregiving.

Chapter 1: Eldercare Basics.

Chapter 2: The Elderly Are Like Vintage Computers.

Chapter 3: Old Age Is a Family Affair: Deciding Who, What,
Where, and When.

Chapter 4: Where to Turn When Your Elder Needs a New Home.

Part II: Mastering Everyday Challenges.

Chapter 5: Sleeping Well Means Doing Well.

Chapter 6: Helping Finicky Eaters.

Chapter 7: Helping Elderly People Be All That They Can Be.

Chapter 8: Sharing the Caring.

Chapter 9: Growing Closer and Dearer: Improving
Relationships.

Part III: Keeping Elderly Folks Safe and Sound.

Chapter 10: Living Well with Chronic Medical Conditions.

Chapter 11: Just Say ‘Yes’ to Health-Giving
Drugs.

Chapter 12: Protective Doohickeys and Thingamajigs.

Chapter 13: Dealing with Leaky Plumbing and Other Incontinence
Problems.

Chapter 14: Getting Out and About.

Part IV: The Blues, the ‘Good Old Days, ‘ and Other
Senior Moments.

Chapter 15: When the Clouds Roll In: Dealing with
Depression.

Chapter 16: Managing Anxiety.

Chapter 17: All About Alzheimer’s Disease.

Chapter 18: Managing the Distressing Behavior and Emotions of
Confused Elderly.

Part V: Making the Final Years Golden.

Chapter 19: When ‘The Apple of Your Eye’ Needs a
Peer.

Chapter 20: Keeping Your Elder at the Helm.

Chapter 21: Keeping the Bill Collector from the Door.

Chapter 22: Helping Spiritual and Religious Elderly ‘Keep
the Faith’.

Chapter 23: Ensuring a Good Death.

Part VI: The Part of Tens.

Chapter 24: Ten Tests to Help You Assess a Nursing Home.

Chapter 25: Ten Ways (More or Less) That Elders Hide Their
Feelings.

Index.

About the author

Rachelle Zukerman, Ph D (Woodland Hills, CA), is a gerontologist, licensed clinical social worker, and Associate Professor of Social Welfare at the UCLA School of Public Policy and Social Research. Dr. Zukerman taught clinical gerontology as a visiting professor at Hong Kong University and was a 1998–99 Fulbright Scholar to Taiwan where she taught counseling methods for elderly clients and their families.