Aging parents. Adult children don’t want to think about it and all too often, their parents don’t want to talk about it. But everyday, millions of people are suddenly thrust into a world they know nothing about because they’ve put off dealing with the inevitable. Now, real help is coming to PBS television in a broadcast that can change lives and family dynamics forever.

AGING PARENTS: Planning for the Future offers useful information for families to manage the challenge of aging. The program presents practical tools for parents and adult children to use in working together to prepare for a more certain future.

The broadcast comes at an important time in history because the demographics are staggering. America’s over-65 population will double by the year 2030, and the fastest growing segment of the population today are those 85+. As Americans are living into their 80s and 90s, the joys and complications of living longer are felt not only by elders, but also by their children, who often become their parent’s caregivers.

Through insights of several families, AGING PARENTS: Planning for the Future offers elders and adult children practical information on managing life changes. The program explains how to move beyond denial and fear, typical emotional responses to the signs of aging, to planning.

When Mary Ann Thykens’ mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease, she and her family waited four years to sit down together and discuss plans for their mother’s care, who by then, could not participate in the discussion. Mary Ann now realizes the impact of that delay: “If we had been better at planning earlier on, we wouldn’t have been in a crisis period when we had to move my mom suddenly.”

But how exactly does one plan for aging, especially if the family is geographically separated and members may disagree about what is in the parent’s best interest? The program takes an instructive approach to these issues offering guidelines parents and adult children can use in opening an often sensitive dialogue and in creating an action plan that suits everyone.

AGING PARENTS: Planning for the Future stresses knowing the basics before a crisis hits. For example, have you and your parents discussed their wishes for medical care or housing? Where can you find their important paperwork such as bank statements, social security numbers, health insurance information, wills, advance directives and monthly bills? Or for that matter, the keys to the house or a safety deposit box? While detailing the bigger issues, like differences in wills and trusts, AGING PARENTS: Planning for the Future reminds us that there are many small steps we can make that not only give adult children the information they need, but will give parents assurance that their wishes are respected.

The broadcast is based on the critically acclaimed family resource, AGING PARENTS: The Family Survival Guide from Lifetapes Communications (San Francisco). Recently honored with 1st prize by The Retirement Research Foundation’s 1997 National Medial Owl Award, AGING PARENTS is endorsed by the country’s leading organizations of elder care professionals - American Society on Aging, and the National Council on the Aging. Both have also endorsed the PBS broadcast of AGING PARENTS: Planning for the Future as recommended viewing for families.

AGING PARENTS: Planning for the Future does not suggest that effects of advanced age will be stress-free for parents or their adult children. However, it does provide information that can move the focus of those years from contention to communication.

CREDITS:

Producer -- Lori Lane

Executive Producers

• Larry Rifkin, Connecticut Public Television
• Bruce Tokars, Lifetapes Communications, Inc.