Book Offers Useful Advice For Caregivers

Reading about retirement matters can be such a grind.

The tedium of the material that financial houses, investment advisers, tax consultants and the American Association of Retired Persons bombard our elders with could put anyone to sleep.

Which makes a new book by Gail and John Goeller of Spokane all the more refreshing. Not only is “The Complete Directory for Seniors and Their Families” highly informative, but it is readable as well.

Maybe what’s so interesting is that the book is focused on Spokane and vicinity. It is crammed with helpful information on all manner of seniors programs and activities, where people can get answers, a dizzying array of housing options, and much more.

This is important reading not just for older citizens, but even more so for the socalled Sandwich Generation. Increasingly, these 50-somethings - many still raising offspring of their own - find themselves assuming responsibility for aging parents who can no longer care for themselves.

Where to turn?

“Our motivation for writing this guide,” John Goeller told me, “came out of our experiences of supporting our own parents in their aging processes. Both my wife and I have lost a parent within the past five years and currently we manage the care of my mother (who has Alzheimer’s), my bedridden aunt who shares my mother’s home, and Gail’s 86-year-old father, who lives alone in his family home.

“When we began this process,” he says, “we were unaware of the myriad resources available in the Spokane area, both for seniors and fellow-Sandwich Generation folks like ourselves. We hardly knew even what questions to ask.

“In writing this directory,” the career educator goes on, “our hope is to educate people about the resources available to them, to encourage them to plan ahead, and to take charge of their lives now. Rather than waiting for crisis.”

The Goellers, both in their mid-50s, “did not do enough thinking ahead about our own parents’ situations,” he freely admits. “We acted out of crisis. It is our hope, this book will encourage and enable readers to do better planning for the future.”

One in four workers today gives care to an elderly family member, Goeller says, and research indicates elder care will supplant child care as the No. 1 workplace issue in the new millennium. “Some forward-looking businesses are already beginning to provide elder care in the workplace.”

His background in education includes several years as a counselor in the Mead School District, followed by a stint with the Whitworth College graduate program.

Gail Goeller operated her own management consultant service. She also has been organizational development director for Group Health in Spokane.

Husband and wife are a self-publishing team. She is the primary writer; he is the editor. They share the marketing and promotion load.

This is the second edition of their book. The original, of which they printed 6,000 copies, sold out. This edition is “30 percent new and updated.” It includes an all-new section on housing. A first printing of 10,000 in January is nearly gone, Goeller said, and the couple is working on a third edition, which they expect to bring out in about a year.

These are enterprising and innovative authors. For example, this edition includes a rather large amount of advertising and self promotion by financial supporters, which not only helps cover publishing costs but adds an element of immediacy or currency to the content, something like newspaper advertising.

In addition to writing, marketing and distributing the book, the couple’s communications firm, Mature Matters, presents one-hour seminars on a range of topics dealing with elder care, the workplace and the community.

“The Complete Directory for Seniors and Their Families” retails for $12.95 and is available at area bookstores.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes on retirement issues each Sunday. He can be reached with ideas for future columns at 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review