Happiness Is Growing Old at Home (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780982308103)

At last - a book that explores innovative ways to help elders live out their years in the comfort of their own homes.

Maria Tadd, a medical writer, has written a thoroughly researched book that offers creative, cost-effective ideas on how to help a parent grow old at home with dignity. She introduces the reader to an exciting world of new, easy-to-use, high-tech devices and suggests how they can work in tandem with more traditional care.

She also provides savvy guidance on how to evaluate and deal with home health care agencies. While coordinating care for her elderly mother, who died at home at the age of 95, Tadd had the opportunity to work with two in-home health care agencies-one was great and the other only added stress to an already stressful situation. Her book analyzes the reasons for the differences, presents guidelines and warning signs, and provides questionnaires to use in assessing and selecting quality in-home care, rehab, and hospice services.

With first-hand experience in helping a parent age gracefully at home, Tadd has written a practical, user-friendly book with warmth, wisdom, and a touch of humor. As one of the reviewers stated, "Reading this book is like having a long conversation with a friend over coffee."

A vast array of topics such as simple ways to improve home safety, signs and symptoms that may indicate that assistance is needed, the importance of good nutrition and exercise, exercises to prevent falls, ways to manage medications and enhance compliance, and many more are addressed in this engaging, comprehensive, holistic guide to home care. An extensive annotated list of Web sites provides a wealth of information on a wide range of subjects.

"Happiness Is Growing Old at Home" is an invaluable resource that will help you and your parent share this once-in-a-lifetime journey and is bound to inspire baby boomers to think about the care they would like for themselves in the future and what that care might look like.

The field of geriatrics and in-home care is burgeoning with new information and new lifestyle-enhancing devices. For the latest updates visit Maria Tadd's Web site, www.agingathome.info.

Praise for Happiness Is Growing Old at Home

"Sooner or later, you or someone you love will need the information in Happiness Is Growing Old at Home. Maria Tadd has crafted a marvelous guide in helping our elders maintain their function and independence. This highly practical book is one of the best in this field." - Larry Dossey, MD, author of Healing Words and The Power of Premonitions

"Happiness Is Growing Old at Home is an invaluable resource for everyone whose parents are beginning to decline." -Christiane Northrup, MD, Ob/Gyn physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause

"Virtually all of us will share the inevitability of aging parents and our own aging. You SHOULD READ THIS BOOK BEFORE YOU NEED IT!!! It is filled with practical and remarkably useful information. I suggest that every adult should study Maria's book and make a master condensed list of how to manage aging." - Norman Shealy, MD, PhD, author, neurosurgeon, founder and first President of the American Holistic Medical Association, founder and President of Holos Institutes of Health