It’s normal for caregivers to feel frustrated and alone because of the emotional and physical tiredness from scheduling appointments, assisting with everyday duties, and simply always being present for someone they love. That’s why self-care is so vital.
Books can provide a much-needed escape with helpful insights, and reassurance by sharing experiences and practical recommendations. It can help you relax, learn new things, and even feel less alone.
In this post, we’ve compiled a list of the 15 Best Books for Caregivers. These books are not only informative, but they also offer support, understanding, and some relief from daily life. Whether you’re looking for practical advice, emotional support, or inspirational examples, these books have something for everyone.
1. How to Care for Aging Parents
Author: Virginia Morris
How to Care for Aging Parents is a comprehensive guide covering topics from adapting the new role to how to cope after it ends and everything in between for the growing number of Americans caring for elderly parents. It has been updated in its third edition, including new chapters on frauds in healthcare or homecare systems, aging in place technologies, online resources, and current healthcare laws. This book also includes worksheets for gathering information on medications, caregivers, and doctors.
2. Medicare for Dummies
Author: Patricia Barry
Medicare is the health insurance program that pays for your parent’s hospitalizations and doctors. Medicare for Dummies, 4th Edition is a comprehensive resource that explains the complex system of Medicare, helping users to maximize coverage. Patricia Barry, a Medicare specialist, provides step-by-step advice on how to enroll, avoid costly mistakes, and select the best plan for their needs. This enables caregivers to cut out-of-pocket expenses, understand their rights and protections, and select the best policy.
3. A Bittersweet Season: Caring for Our Aging Parents and Ourselves
Author: Jane Gross
Jane Gross’s memoir, A Bittersweet Season, chronicles her caring journey with her aging mother. She discusses her experiences, blunders, and criticisms of the healthcare system, providing useful guidance for adult children caring for aging parents. This book for caregivers is a comprehensive resource for managing the lives of one’s parents while remaining calm and strong. It discusses subjects such as finding a nursing home, understanding Medicare and Medicaid, finding a medical practitioner, balancing quality and quantity of life, and keeping essentials in one’s car.
4. The Gift of Caring: Saving Our Parents from the Perils of Modern Healthcare
Authors: Marcy Cottrell Houle & Elizabeth Eckstrom
The Gift of Caring reveals the untold story of modern healthcare practices. This book co-written by award-winning author Marcy Houle and nationally-recognized geriatrician Elizabeth Eckstrom MD MPH, sheds new light on aging by showing it from twin perspectives: the story of a daughter desperately seeking help for her parents, and a geriatrician who offers life-changing strategies that can protect our loved ones and ourselves. It explains that the real issue is not that the answers to ease suffering don’t exist, but that what we need to know is generally not available to the general public and many healthcare professionals have little or no training in the care of older adults. That’s why it aims to empower older adults, family members, and healthcare professionals by sharing knowledge and practical strategies.
5. The 36-Hour Day: A Family Guide to Caring for People Who Have Alzheimer Disease, Other Dementias, and Memory Loss
Authors: Nancy L. Mace & Peter V. Rabins
For more than 30 years The 36-Hour Day has been one of the best books for caregivers of Alzheimer’s and dementia, providing advice on managing caregiving challenges, symptoms, and legal and financial planning. Written by experts, it covers dementia causes, early stages, and later stages. The updated edition includes new content on home care aides, apps, preventative techniques, therapies, and practical advice for avoiding burnout.
6. Caregiver’s Handbook: A Complete Guide to Home Health Care
Author: Visiting Nurse Associations of America
This caregiver’s handbook is aimed to guide home-based caregivers on a range of home healthcare areas including quality treatment, equipment that can make care easier, coping emotionally, gathering financial support, and much more.
7. Toolkit for Caregivers
Author: Deidre Edwards, RN
The majority of us will at some point have to take on the position of caregiver, and it can be difficult to face it head-on. In addition to covering topics including fundamental caregiving skills, end-of-life planning, caregiver stress, taking care of the dying, and dealing with loss and grief, Deidre Edwards offers practical insights and proven skills for providing care. It is an essential tool to help you handle the challenges of providing care, get ready for unanticipated situations, and find available support.
8. Working Daughter: A Guide to Caring for Your Aging Parents While Making a Living
Author: Liz O’Donnell
Working Daughter is a book about the obstacles that unpaid family caregivers encounter when caring for the elderly. The author, who had a fast-paced profession, discusses her experiences caring for her parents, raising her children, maintaining relationships, and pursuing her job. The book aims to initiate a conversation about women and the workplace, and it includes a roadmap for women as well as a call to action for corporate leaders and policymakers.
9. Living with Dying
Authors: Jahnna Beecham & Katie Ortlip
Living with Dying provides a compassionate and holistic approach to care for the terminally ill. The book offers advice on communication, emotional and spiritual development, pain management, symptom treatment, hospice work, self-care, and managing our affairs. It stresses polite, experiential, researched, and joyous caregiving, allowing readers to handle the final hours of their loved one’s life without becoming frustrated.
10. The Gifts of Caregiving: Stories of Hardship, Hope, and Healing
Author: Connie Goldman
A collection of touching stories titled “The Gifts of Caregiving” offers inspiration and emotional support while emphasizing the transforming impact of caregiving. Connie Goldman shares moving stories about caregivers who overcame adversity and grew personally as a result of their experiences. This book teaches caregivers about the benefits of their role and encourages them to prioritize self-care and celebrate the good parts of their journey.
11. The Art of Extreme Self-Care: Transform Your Life One Month at a Time
Author: Cheryl Richardson
Cheryl Richardson’s “The Art of Extreme Self-Care” is a life-changing book for caregivers, offering 12 techniques one for each month to help caregivers improve their lives. The book promotes establishing clear boundaries, eliminating insignificant obligations, and developing a routine that nurtures the body, mind, and spirit. It also features a resource section where you may learn more about various topics through books, websites, audio programs, podcasts, and other resources.
12. How to Say It to seniors: Closing the Communication Gap with Our Elders
Author: David Solie
“How to Say It to seniors” by David Solie is a book that provides readers with techniques for relating to seniors and bridging the generation gap, allowing them to have happier relationships with their parents. It provides practical suggestions for recognizing their emotional needs and dealing with tough issues. Solie’s knowledge and caring approach assist readers in dealing with communication issues associated with aging, as well as developing stronger connections with their parents.
13. No Saints Around Here: A Caregiver’s Days
Author: Susan Allen Toth
Susan Allen Toth’s memoir, “No Saints around Here,” is a touching and deeply intimate portrayal of the hardships of caring for a dying loved one. It emphasizes the importance of paying attention to the millions of people who devote their days to caring for a loved one, and it serves as a catalyst for others to find their voices in conversations concerning caregiving.
14. Are You Prepared to Be a Caregiver?
Author: Patrick Palmer
This book is written to assist caregivers provide meaningful and supportive care in situations where they suddenly enter the role of caregiving. It conveys clear, unbiased information about roles, duties, aging, and care receiver thoughts. This book also emphasizes the importance of family and relationships during tough times and includes practical guidance on conflict resolution and ways to create lasting memories.
Patrick covers everything you need to know to ease the stress of caregiving. He covers a range of topics, including financial planning, how to afford in-home care, the benefits of long-term healthcare insurance, and estate planning to ensure your loved one’s assets are protected. He also explains how to modify your home to make it safe and comfortable for your loved one, reducing the risk of accidents.
15. Be the Noodle: Fifty ways to be a compassionate, courageous, crazy-good caregiver
Author: Lois Kelly
Be The Noodle is a memoir that combines a love story, a how-to manual, and a memoir about the author’s life-changing journey as a caregiver. It provides 50 amazing lessons on how to become a caring and phenomenally good caretaker, all while tackling the challenges of this heroic job. The book discusses subjects including staying calm, finding happiness in ill humor, and pushing for patient martinis with oncologists.
Last Words
Caring was never simple, and will never be but with the resources out there you can become strong and capable of handling its challenges. Remember, you do not have to suffer this alone. We hope this list of 15 Best Books for Caregivers gives you a good starting point to find a book that speaks to you, whether you need a shoulder to cry on, a roadmap to understand the practicalities, or inspiration from someone who’s been there.
In the end, take care of yourself, because you deserve it. And remember, there’s a whole community of caregivers out there cheering you on.
