Caring For Your Parents: The Complete Aarp Guide By jennz on Jan 22, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

My family is over 1000 miles away from my parents, so when my father had a heartache and a double bypass closely followed by my mother's diagnosis of ovarian cancer I felt that I needed to find out more information about how to help them out. There are a lot of books out there on caring for your parents but I was looking for a guidebook type, or an instruction book. I chose this based on AARPs reputation and was not disappointed. I was starting from nothing - I didn't know which way to turn or what to ask. This book has been wonderful. It is laid out almost like a text book, with different chapters covering different events and offering options. They discuss simple things that I didn't think of, like having my parents sign the release at the doctor's office so I can discuss their health questions with their physicians. I particularly liked the section on long distance assistance. As my parents have recovered my husband's mother's health has declined and hospice has been called in. Once again I referred to this book and found the section on hospice, although small, invaluable. I highly recommend this book. It won't answer all your questions as a caregiver but it will give you information to get you in the right direction and help you figure out what questions you need to ask.