Seniors Hide Difficulties, Causing Problems for Themselves and Family Members

Feb. 24, 2012 - PRLog -- When Faye Levow moved to Florida a few years ago, she had no idea that her mother was having such a difficult time. “She was able to hide it pretty well over the phone,” says Levow. “It just seemed like she had a little confusion about dates or the time of day, if she had taken a nap.”
    Levow’s experience is pretty common. Most seniors don’t want their children to know how difficult things really are. They’re afraid they will be “put in a nursing home.” And even when adult children see what’s going on, their elderly parents don’t want to talk about it or share information.
    If things have gone too far, as they had with Levow’s mother, they become a bit paranoid and don’t want to discuss finances or moving to a safer environment. This can cause a great deal of problems. “My mom was diabetic,” Levow explains, “and was attempting to self-correct her insulin, but was eating very poorly. It was a mess! She was minutes away from a diabetic coma. The part-time caregiver wasn’t licensed or properly trained and didn’t recognize it.”
    Suddenly, there were caregivers around-the-clock, all being managed by the part-time caregiver. Like many adult children with a “difficult parent,” it was easy to let that caregiver take care of it all. Little did she know, that the primary caregiver was skimming money and stealing via credit cards. “I found out much later. There may have been other types of abuse, too. I didn’t know what to look for,” she says.
    As a result of a tumultuous two years, Levow wanted to help other families eliminate the stress and difficulties that go along with issues of aging. Her upcoming resource book entitled, “OMG! My Parents Are Getting OLD!” has the lessons of over 70 family caregivers, chapters from more than 50 professionals who work with seniors in a wide range of fields, and woven throughout, is her own dramatic story of caregivers, theft, finances, and family gone awry during the last two years of her mother's life.
    Levow is using Kickstarter.com to get the project funded. Kickstarter.com is a site that allows people to raise money for their projects. Projects are screened before someone is allowed to post and a lot of thought is put into each posting. The funds are run through Amazon.com and are only released if the total requested funding amount is raised. Project directors offer rewards to those who contribute, ranging from souvenirs of the project to copies of it, such as books, films, jewelry, and more.
    You can become a contributor for as little as $10. Backing with a pledge of $25 will get you a copy of the book – a great deal!
    “OMG! My Parents Are Getting OLD!” will be out later this year.  To visit the Kickstarter page for “OMG! My Parents Are Getting OLD!” and be part of this ground-breaking project, visit  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2024295207/omg-my-par...

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