Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #312736 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 261 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781572307292
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
For anyone with the responsibility of caring for a sick or disabled parent, this clear-eyed guide will be of real assistance. Jacobs, director of behavioral sciences for the Crozer-Keystone Family Medicine Residency Program in Pennsylvania, knows firsthand the emotional and financial devastation such illness can cause: his father died of cancer when Jacobs was 13. He illustrates the problems caregivers face through the story of two women (composites of caregivers he has known), middle-aged, married sisters struggling with the cancer of their widowed mother from diagnosis to death. As Jacobs points out, the sisters, their mother and her doctors are not perfect models of resilience and wisdom: rather, they're average people whom readers will be able to identify with and learn from. Through this story, Jacobs explores how to define your commitment to caregiving and recruit relatives as well as professionals to help, along with strategies for preserving your own personal life during an extended illness. Jacobs recommends that family members meet regularly, even online, to negotiate caregiving responsibilities. Jacobs's frankness about the emotional as well as medical traps that await families dealing with serious illness, and his concrete advice on how to handle them, offers in-depth support to caregivers. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Guidelines, advice, and questions for the reader are interspersed with the narrative. This insightful book is an important guide for any family trying to care for a loved one." -- Family Caregiver Alliance Update

"His Q&A approach...is perceptive without being intrusive, instructive without being dogmatic, informative without being technical, compassionate without being maudlin and focuses on problem solving without being cookie-cutter in approach. Even if you are not now a caregiver, it is an important read since many of you will probably become one sooner than later." -- eNN: Eldercare Network News

"Jacobs has a gripping writing style and a passion for the subject that sustain the reader during even the heaviest of topics. His use of the narrative makes the book easy to follow, while creating natural places to interject advice from his extensive knowledge about the stresses of caregiving. He addresses the touchy subjects that caregivers might be ashamed or afraid to ask about, reassuring them that feelings of resentment, guilt, and isolation are normal reactions that go with the territory of caregiving." -- Newsday

"There's plenty of practical advice on communication and finding meaning in suffering, but Jacobs's most valuable contribution is that he lays out the most dreadful selfish, unworthy thoughts anyone looking after a terminally ill parent could possibly have--and then assures us: Everyone feels that way." -- Philadelphia

"Wise material....A collection of questions and answers explores different facets of the caregiving task and offers specific tips and strategies for success. The resources section lists a variety of organizations, publications, and web sites....Highly recommended." -- Library Journal (starred review)

About the Author

Customer Reviews

a book that all caregivers and professionals should read
Barry Jacobs has written an excellent book not only for caregivers of aging medically ill parents but for professionals who work with patients and families coping with chronic illness. Several things stand out in this book. First is the approach which involves following a ficionalized pair of adult sisters who are caring for and coping with an ailing mother. Jacobs writes this account with great depth and creativity and is able to capture the kinds of feelings and describe the kinds of patterns that are often missing in other 'self help' books. Second, Jacobs also utilizes his own expereince, personal and professional, including advice columns he has written over the years. Third, the book covers evrerything from how to decide how much care you can provide to how to consider spiritual and other issues. Fourth, along the way are plenty of very valuable "how to" suggestions that will be of great benefit to any reader. If you are looking for even one caregiving book for your bookshelf, choose this one. Excellent read. Excellent resource.

A Real Find for Both Clinicians and Caregivers
Author Barry Jacobs has done his homework well and speaks of his subject matter with both expertise and the human touch of one who knows this territory first hand from having lived it both personally and professionally. As a practicing clinician, I have recommended it to many patients who are struggling with issues around the aging and declining health of their parents. Jacobs provides a prospective that steers a middle course between acknowledging the guilt that adult children feel around the need to take care of themselves while taking care of their parent, and the real physical and emotional demands of caretaking. Besides all that, he is a good writer and tells us about the central lessons of caretaking through the story of two sisters facing the serious illness of their mother. This subject is one most of us have to face sooner or later, and Barry Jacobs gives us an excellent guide as to how to navigate the terrain as well as possible.

Jan Goldman, Psy.D.

A really good and powerful story
The Emotional Survival Guide for Caregivers is an amazing book focused around the difficulties faces by two sisters taking care of their ailing mother. Real people can relate to the characters and their struggles are real to many people across America and the rest of the world. I think that anyone who is a caregiver should definately read this book.