News Release for
Caregivers and Personal Assistants
Contact:
Take Care Books (formerly Saratoga Access Publications)
PO BOX 924
LaPorte, CO 80535
E-mail: peggy@takecarebooks.com
Web site: takecarebooks.com
AUTHOR WITH DISABILITY OFFERS HOW-TO HELP
TO FAMILY CAREGIVERS, HEALTH CARE AGENCIES, AND
OTHERS WHO NEED ASSISTANCE
CAREGIVERS AND PERSONAL ASSISTANTS:
HOW TO FIND, HIRE AND MANAGE THE PEOPLE WHO HELP YOU
(OR YOUR LOVED ONE!)
BY ALFRED H. DEGRAFF, Ph.D.
“IS A BIBLE FOR PEOPLE WHO MUST DEPEND ON OTHERS TO GET THROUGH THE DAY”
People who need the skills to hire and manage help providers include those with disabilities and, ironically, overworked family caregivers who desperately need relief help. Until now, learning these skills has been very difficult. There have been only two very costly schools that taught them: Trial and Error, and Hard Knocks!
An author and professional, who lived with a disability and required daily assistance from providers for over 30 years, comes to the rescue with a reference book of “how to” strategies. While other books have explored the emotional aspects of caregiving or provided nursing techniques for aides to use, this book is unique. Caregivers and Personal Assistants: How to Find, Hire and Manage the People Who Help You (Or Your Loved One!) shows people who need help how to find quality help providers, whenever and wherever they are needed, and keep them longer!
Those who hire help providers include several kinds of help recipients, family caregivers, and health care agencies. Millions of Americans have dependent needs that require daily help from family caregivers and paid personal assistants (PAs). These help recipients include patients being discharged early from today’s hospitals, people with life-long disabilities, and seniors who face the progressive limitations of aging. In addition, the National Family Caregivers Association estimates that 26% of adult Americans—about 54 million people—have provided caregiver services to loved ones within the last 12 months. Ironically, most of these family caregivers will eventually want to hire relief help because they become chronically tired and are often headed for depression. Even most health care facilities and agencies, that are theoretically "the pros" of employing help providers and providing them to others, find they constantly need to hire more help and would welcome advice.
Caregivers and Personal Assistants... is a comprehensive, indexed, step-by-step reference that teaches help recipients (as well as family caregivers and health care agencies) the time-proven strategies for recruiting, interviewing, hiring, training, managing, and parting from help providers. People who learn these special management skills can better control the quality of help they receive, because they can first control the quality of their help providers. Special chapters also teach family caregivers how to avoid chronic fatigue, and reserve family time and energy for providing love, caring, and support.
The author was a leading authority because of his decades of personal, professional, and academic experience as well as his widespread sharing of management strategies through seminars, courses, and publications. For over 30 years, Alfred H. “Skip” DeGraff, a tetraplegic used motorized wheelchair mobility (after a diving injury at age 18), and was dependent each day on help providers. While completing graduate school and pursuing professional careers, he personally employed over 350 personal assistants (PAs) after interviewing over 1,500 applicants. He also provided one-on-one counseling to help recipients, family caregivers, and paid providers; taught formal 16-week courses on PA management; hosted magazine columns; and authored this third, completely revised edition of his reference.