Aging With a Plan

This book offers a concise, comprehensive resource for middle-aged readers who are facing the prospects of their own aging and of caring for elderly relatives-an often overwhelming task for which little in life prepares us. Everyone ages, and nearly everyone will also experience having to support aging relatives. Being prepared is the best way to handle this inevitable life stage. This book addresses a breadth of topics that are relevant to aging and caring for the elderly, analyzing each thoroughly and providing up-to-date, practical advice. It can serve as a concise and comprehensive resource read start-to-finish to plan for an individual's own old age or to anticipate the needs of aging relatives, or as a quick-reference guide on specific issues and topics as relevant to each reader's situation and needs. Using an interdisciplinary approach, Aging with a Plan: How a Little Thought Today Can Vastly Improve Your Tomorrow develops recommendations for building sustainable social, legal, medical, and financial support systems that can promote a good quality of life throughout the aging process. Chapters address critical topics such as retirement savings and expenses, residential settings, legal planning, the elderly and driving, long-term care, and end-of-life decisions. The author combines analysis of recent research on the challenges of aging with engaging anecdotes and personal observations. By following the recommendations in this book, readers in their 40s, 50s, and early 60s will greatly benefit from learning about the issues regarding aging in the 21st century-and from investing some effort in planning for their old age and that of their loved ones.

Sharona Hoffman is the Edgar A. Hahn Professor of Law, professor of bioethics, and co-director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. She received her bachelor of arts magna cum laude from Wellesley College, her juris doctor degree cum laude from Harvard Law School, and her Master of Laws in health law from the University of Houston. Hoffman has twice spent a sabbatical semester as a visiting scholar at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2007 and 2014) and was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow in Public Health Law in 2013. She has published more than 60 articles and book chapters on a broad range of health law and discrimination issues, won several awards for teaching and scholarship, and lectured throughout the United States and internationally as well as been widely featured in the media.

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Money Matters: Retirement Expenses, Savings, and Fiscal Decision Making 2. The Benefits of Community Living 3. Help with Money, Care, and Home Management 4. Essential Legal Planning 5. Driving While Elderly 6. Coordinated Care: Treating the Patient, not Diseases 7. Long-Term Care 8. Exit Strategies: Maintaining Control at the End of Life 9. Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index