Care, Grieve, Grow: Caring For Your Aging Parents While Caring for Yourself

Many in the baby boomer generation face the challenge of caring for their aging parents. Author Karen Fazio, MSG, combines her professional experience in the eldercare and wellness fields with that of caring for her own parents to serve as an empathetic tour guide in Care, Grieve, Grow: Caring for Your Aging Parents While Caring for Yourself.

Fazio shares personal stories throughout the book as they relate to aging issues such as declining health, care planning, and senior-living options. She offers holistic methods for coping with the stress that comes with having to make decisions for parents during their elder years. In addition, she helps readers prepare emotionally for the loss of a parent while showing how this process can bring about a better understanding of who they are and what their purpose is in life.

Those who find Gail Sheehy's Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos into Confidence and Paul Hogan's Stages of Senior Care: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making the Best Decisions helpful will appreciate this more personal complement to their work.

Karen Fazio, MSG, began her career as a holistic health practitioner focusing on management of stress, grief, and chronic illness. She became a certified holistic life coach in 2006.

While caring for her ill parents, Fazio saw firsthand the many gaps in aging services, which motivated her to purchase a home-care and assistance franchise and further her education. She earned an undergraduate degree in human services, with an emphasis on gerontology, and a master of science degree in gerontology from California State University, Fullerton. She now teaches stress management in the university's health science department.

Fazio also serves as an aging services consultant and educator for the Council on Aging, and she presents seminars to corporate employees taking on the care of elderly parents.

When not working, she enjoys spending time with family and friends as well as outdoor activities such as kayaking, hiking, and running.