The Senior Organizer: Personal, Medical, Legal, Financial
The title is pretty self explanatory. This is a book, largely of forms that helps organize critical information that will be important during medical emergencies, diminished mental capacity and ultimately the death of a loved one. The Senior Organizer has a place to put all the information that you’re going to need for a number of situations.

Up front, the organizer has an index to the most important information in the book for emergency situations. It simply points the reader to the most important pages, like: specific information on the senior, emergency contacts, medications and other information stored in the book that can be important to have in an emergency. Overall, the book has two major sections after that that contain “personal & medical” and “legal & financial”.

The personal and medical section includes everything from doctors, doctor visits and prescriptions, to insurance and contact information.

The legal and financial is as you would expect, including information on banks, taxes, real estate holdings, insurance, health directives and end-of-life documents like wills.

This may seem like something you could do on your own, and it is, but the value that the editors of The Senior Organizer bring is their thoroughness and that they’ve packaged it into a very usable book. A thoughtful bonus is that buying the book entitles you to free downloads of new pages if you have to revise or add anything, or if you want to create a notebook instead of keeping it in a paperback.

One caution that I would make is that the book has places for information (Social Security number, date of birth, and credit card numbers) that would be ideal for identity theft, or outright theft. It should be agreed that this kind of information be kept in a more secure location.

Family Caregiver Organizer: A Personal and Medical Journal for Care-receivers and Their Caregiver(s)
The Family Caregiver Organizer is singularly focused on health care and, I would argue, on individuals who receive a lot of health care.  The organizer is spiral bound and a little friendlier for every day use than The Senior Organizer. The bulk of the organizer is monthly logs that include: My Calendar, Questions for the Doctor, Lab Tests, Medications and daily logs among other things. There are six months of logs and you can order more pages.

Up front is, “All About the Care-receiver”, including sections called My Health Now and My Health History.

The organizer includes a Family Caregiver Answer Book, a reminder booklet for caregivers called, Caring for the Caregiver and a File of Life, covered recently here on SHF.

My take? I’ve ordered both for my parents.

Dr. Josh Klapow

Dr. Josh Klapow, a clinical psychologist, was a guest speaker on Oprah & Friends’ “Meet the Peetes”, a program featuring Holly Robinson Peete and her husband Rodney Peete.  

Dr. Klapow and The Peetes spoke about the Sandwich Generation and the struggles they face juggling the care of their aging parents while raising their children.

Dr. Klapow explained that emotional and financial burnout can quickly ensue if these caregivers do not learn how to balance their personal lives with those of their children and parents.

He also stresses that these caregivers cannot allow guilt to influence their decision-making.

Listen to the program on Oprah & Friends.

Visit Dr. Klapow’s site directly for some great tips on staying healthy.

Flickr by a4gpa

Are you currently busy raising children; all the while, caring for the needs of an aging parent?  If so, you are not alone!

CBS News reported in May of 2006 that, “An estimated 16 million Americans – more people than live in all of New England – find themselves “sandwiched” between two generations, struggling to raise their kids while caring for an aging loved one. 

They further explained that “the number is about to explode: In 25 years, there will be 60 million Americans between the ages of 66 and 84, many of them needing full- or part-time care.”

Dr. Janet Taylor, M.D. reports that, “the sandwich generation keeps getting bigger as a result of women bearing children later in life, more women working, and parents living longer due to improved healthcare technology.”

Many organizations have sprung up to offer support to this growing group of Americans.  One such organization is the Family Caregiver Alliance.   It provides caregivers with state-by-state help navigating the long-term care system (government, nonprofit, and private programs). 

Other helpful websites and online articles include:

Strength for Caring: This is a site for caregivers in general but provides some great coping suggestions for those in the Sandwich Generation. 

CNN Money: This article provides hints and suggestions for handling the financial challenges that come when you are handling the finances of your parent(s) while supporting your children.

The Sandwich Generation: This site is dedicated to providing information and training to people who find themselves in this life stage.  

Note:  A simple Google search for “the sandwich generation” turned up 411,000 entries.    There is support and information to help guide through this.