WHERE CAN MOM LIVE? A Family Guide to Living Arrangements for Elderly Parents

Do we need yet another book on housing for the elderly? In this case, the answer is yes--chiefly because Carlin and Mansberg provide considerable detail on living arrangements frequently short-shrifted in other books. For instance, they introduce us to geriatric-care agencies (a new and proliferating industry), which take over responsibilities usually handled by grown children. These agencies can quickly tap into various services that enable the elderly to live on their own: household help, recreation, community meals, home nursing care, etc. Also discussed is more familiar housing designed for and restricted to older people: Sun City-like developments, ""life care"" communities (which include--at a high cost--a contract for lifetime care) and how-cost (but increasingly rare) publicly financed housing. They give considerable space to private-home sharing, group homes (usually sponsored and staffed by church or civic organizations), foster home care, and so on. The advantages, pitfalls and costs of each arrangement are provided, while pertinent, relatively brief case histories highlight true-life experiences of different living arrangements. A particularly helpful chapter supplies a checklist whereby elderly parents and their children can determine the best feasible alternative and the agencies to contact for information on the living arrangement of choice. In a crowded field, a promising dark horse.