Legal Advice – How to Stop an Elder From Driving
Review of The Boomer’s Guide to Aging Parents, by Carolyn Rosenblatt
May 23, 2009
Carolyn Rosenblatt’s e-book, The Boomer's Guide to Aging Parents is a combination of nine e-books all in one. It is written for baby boomers with elderly parents. The e-book is for those who are currently helping care for their parents, as well as those who are just starting to notice that their elders’ health and abilities may be slipping.
The Boomer's Guide to Aging Parents is written from a legal and a relational perspective. In contrast to other books on caring for elderly parents, it provides legal and technical details of situations encountered by caring for parents. It also provides advice on relating to elderly parents in a way that will help accomplish the goals of the caregiver.
Caregiving from a Legal Perspective
Many caregivers do not approach things from a legal perspective. For example, Rosenblatt strongly recommends against hiring a home health care worker privately, without going through an agency. Yet in reality, many people choose to utilize the word-of-mouth network to find home health care workers and some of the best workers can sometimes be found this way.
But the reasons for Rosenblatt’s recommendation are sound. If anything does go wrong, people will have wished that they did it Rosenblatt’s way because of the legal protections they will have. Her perspective is one that is definitely worth considering.
The Legal Approach to Preventing an Elder from Driving
In the section on driving, Rosenblatt explains in great detail all that can be done to prevent an elder from driving if his or her driving has become a threat to self and others. She provides information on legal processes, like guardianship, that can accomplish this goal. In reality, people might be more likely to, after all reasonable efforts fail to convince the loved one, take away the keys or disable the car, but Rosenblatt recommends against this.
From a mental health perspective, taking the keys can be justified. If a person becomes a threat to self or others he may lose the privilege to decide for himself. Legally, however, this may not be the case. So again, Rosenblatt offers a perspective that the average person may not have considered.
The section on driving is quite thorough, and provides a great deal of useful information about how to even determine whether or not the elder should be driving.
Caregiving, and Legal Requirements of Assisted Living
The assisted living section is also quite good. It clearly explains all of the difficult-to-understand fine print the caregiver needs to know about the different types of facilities that can serve the elder at different stages of functioning.
The e-book is grounded in Rosenblatt’s perspective as a registered nurse. She values relationships and is always promoting ways to respect the elder’s feelings. She does this throughout the book.
One Drawback to The Boomer’s Guide to Caring for Aging Parents
At $29.95 the e-book seems a bit pricey as books go. But it is a good reference book to have on the shelf. People will learn about things like Geriatric Care Managers and other extremely useful resources that they may not have been aware of.
Each separate section is also available as an individual downloadable e-book for $9.99 apiece. Considering the cost of legal advice and the inaccessibility of it, the price may be justified. The book may not be a substitute for legal advice, but it does inform the reader.
Rosenblatt's two websites, AgingParents and HelpWithElders can be helpful to boomers caring for aging parents. The e-book is available through AgingParents.
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