The Caring Caregiver's Guide to Dealing with Guilt

This guidebook is a collection of 10, true, short stories about the undeserved guilt families experience when they turn the care of their loved ones over to someone else. "Caring Caregivers" is written in a down-to-earth style that families will easily identify with but still professional enough for medical management to purchase as a handbook for their employees and libraries. It also contains the stages the family goes through in dealing with the guilt, a question and answer section and a much needed checklist for placement and specific problems and how to overcome them with creative solutions. This book is the first in a 13 book series of "Caring Caregivers" yet to come.

If you have an elderly loved one and are feeling guilty about not caring for them yourself but simply cannot, this book will help you to see you are not alone in dealing with these debilitating emotions and what to do about ridding yourself of the guilt monster once and for all.

If you are not at the point of relinquishing their care yet, Caring Caregivers can give you creative tips on caring for your loved one and make your job at home much easier.

This book will also help medical professionals to better understand the anguish and pain their clients’ families are experiencing so they can better serve them. We have identified 9 types of guilt in this book.

Coping with death, guilt, mental illness, violence, abuse, revenge, victory, tears and love are but a few of the tumultuous feelings and seemingly insurmountable situations in which the real-life people in "The Caring Caregivers Guide to Dealing with Guilt" find themselves in.

"Baby boomers", "the sandwich generation"- you can label this group in a variety of ways, but the facts speak for themselves in regard to the increasing population of adult children of the elderly.

If we take into consideration the fact that people are living longer (according to the Census Bureau, the average age at death in the year 2000 was 85), we can see that there are millions of Americans between the ages of 38 and 67 who out of necessity make decisions about arranging care for their elderly parents or grandparents. Many of these caregivers have children of their own and the responsibilities of caring for them, both in the home and on the job; they want to help their parents, but they are simply overwhelmed. All too often, they suffer from a tremendous burden of guilt that keeps them from making important and sound decisions about their parents’ care until it is too late--and their own health, and their careers or marriages, are sacrificed in the meantime. Caring Caregivers helps them make important decisions much easier.

In addition to the impelling stories, is included a highly beneficial suggestion box with solutions for the reader regarding the type of guilt addressed at the end of each story.

Family caregivers, as well as medical professionals who deal with families everyday, will find the chapters on the stages that the family goes through, and how to handle dementia-specific problems, highly beneficial and easily applicable.

Bob & Starr Calo-oy were both born and raised in San Antonio and have been joyfully married for 27 years. From 1989 to 2006, they owned and operated a personal care home specializing in the care of terminally ill patients and victims of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in their San Antonio home. They also cared for the well-minded elderly who could no longer care for themselves at home. In addition to caring for the elderly in their home, they have given in-service training for doctors, nurses, the staffs of hospices and home health agencies, sharing tips and unique ideas for caring for people with dementia. Starr also gives private consultations to individuals on how to start and operate a successful personal care home as well as helping family caregivers set up their home for care.Starr is past Vice-President of San Antonio Residential Care Homes (SARCH) and was the creator, editor and publisher of their newsletter from 1998 through 2001. She is also past Vice President, editor and publications director on the board of The Final Draft, the newsletter for the San Antonio Writers Guild. She is a columnist for SAWorship.com as well as a freelance writer for the San Antonio Express-News. In April 2004, they released their first book, “The Caring Caregivers Guide to Dealing with Guilt”, about their experiences over 17 years of operating their personal care home. This book is about the undeserved guilt families experience when they turn the care of their loved ones over to someone else. However, if the family desires to care for their loved one in their own home, it provides tips and directions to help them. It was written so that the medical field can benefit by empathizing while at the same time making it easy for the non-medical professional to easily understand its content. In November 2006, they released “Hospice Care at Home/ A guide to caring for your dying loved one at home.” This book provides the family caregiver with all the information necessary to keep their loved one in their home through death rather than sending them to a more institutional setting. It has sold over 2,000 copies over the past few months and is on its way to becoming a best seller.In November 2007, they will release 2 new books, “Caregiving Tips A-Z, Alzheimer’s & Other Dementias” and “Caregiving Tips A-Z.” Starr and Bob published their own monthly, 26-page tabloid newspaper, the TELESTARR, which was circulated throughout South Texas city, county and state agencies for eight years. Presently, they counsel couples to help them to develop a more meaningful relationship and better communication skills. They have also written a series of 7 booklets to help the family caregiver, having to do with the different dilemmas that they face while caring for their loved one. In September, 2007, they started the non-profit organization, Caregivers Support Network, through which they will begin teaching free caregiving classes in February 2008 which will be open to the public.Starr and Bob speak at conventions, seminars, civic clubs, and health care facilities, do book signings at Barnes & Noble’s all over Texas, and make television and radio appearances.