There is no right or wrong way to be a loving caregiver to your disabled or aging loved ones. If you’re feeling alone in your emotions and role as a caregiver, take some time this season to cuddle up by a fire and pop open one of these caregiver support books. The following books about caregivers will give you the warm fuzzies during cold winter days and maybe a laugh or two during long, hard days.
Caregiver Support Books
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Sometimes, the emotional struggle for a caregiver is the ability to understand what your loved one is going through with their disability. Still Alice is a New York Times bestseller, which was recently adapted into a movie starring Julianne Moore.
The novel follows a successful professor named Alice, who begins to experience the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease at 50 years old. Although Still Alice is one of the less traditional caregiver support books, it offers those with loved ones suffering from Alzheimer’s disease an inside look on what your family member is experiencing. As you know, understanding what your loved one is feeling during difficult times of transition is a large part of caring for them.
No Saints around Here: A Caregiver’s Days by Susan Allen Toth
With its quick wit, occasional humor, abundance of love, and raw truth, No Saints around Here quickly became one of the best selling books on caregiving. Susan Allen Toth writes a memoir about caring for her husband who is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and, eventually, dementia.
The novel is broken up into sporadic days, sprinkled with bits of advice for caring for a disabled loved one. This format makes it one of the more realistic caregiver support books which you can pick up and read when you can steal a moment or two here and there, while also showing Toth understands how demanding the role of caregiver can be.
Thicker than Water by Don Meyer
Parents who care for an adult child with disabilities, especially if you have other children, will appreciate this book of short stories by Don Meyer. Thicker than Water contains essays written by adult siblings of loved ones with disabilities. In their essays, adult siblings of family members with different abilities reflect on how their family member shaped their lives. This is one of the caregiver support books that can be enjoyed by yourself or with your children, who can relate to the experiences of others in the book.
Know the Night: A Memoir of Survival in the Small Hours by Maria Mutch
In this poetic novel, Maria Mutch shares her experience caring for her son, Gabriel, who is diagnosed with down syndrome and autism. Gabriel rarely slept for a number of years, leaving he and Mutch to explore the night together.
The author seamlessly compares her time venturing to jazz clubs and caring for Gabriel during the quiet moments of the night, to Admiral Richard Byrd, an explorer who spent time alone in the wilderness. Mutch’s fierce love for her son shines through the pages in one of the more poetic caregiver support books. This story will be hard to put down as Mutch has unknowingly created one of the best selling books on caregiving, by sharing her personal experiences to reach her son while staying in touch with herself.
Doing the Right Thing: Taking Care of Elderly Parents Even if They Didn’t Take Care of You by Roberta Satow
Many parent-child relationships are faced with challenges, some more than others. Robert Satow is a psychoanalyst who took on the role of caregiver to her disabled, elderly mother. This is one of the books for caregivers of elderly parents, who may have had a difficult relationship before their parents became ill.
Doing the Right Thing can be used as a guide for mending relationships while caring for your parent. Satow’s experience as a conflicted caregiver provides the reader with practical advice and strategies for coping with their new responsibilities. Not all books on caring for aging parents will dive as deep into the complex family relationships one has to navigate through quite like Satow’s caregiver support book.
Find Support at Nevada Adult Day Healthcare Centers
Caregiver support books are a great way to feel supported during your limited hours of alone time. Call us today and find out how Nevada Adult Day Healthcare Centers can provide caregiver support every day.
