Stages of Senior Care Paul and Lori Hogan

There is a bewildering selection of “how to care for the elderly” books. Paul and Lori Hogan, in Stages of Senior Care, wrote one which is worth finding. They teach their readers about critical potential resources for the challenges: professional, non-familial service providers, for example through home health agencies which can provide in-home nursing assistance, or a skilled nursing facility. The Hogans founded Home Instead Senior Care, a chain of franchises which offer in-home assistance ranging from simple companionship to hospice support. The book is admirably balanced – while the Hogans do use their professional experiences with Home Instead for reference, they readily draw on other data and opinions as well.

The book is a detail-by-detail look at all the possibilities, and when they are most appropriately in use. But equally important, the Hogans, with compassion and tact, alert their audience to unanticipated obstacles. Among them: safely managing a parent who develops paranoia as a symptom of Alzheimer’s; your own intense, often conflicting emotions about your family; the terrifying financial drain resources can cause. This book gives people some tools for coping.