Adult Children and Aging Parents: Conversations between Generations is a series of educational programs about family decisions and relationships in later life. It is designed to:
- help families talk about and plan for changing needs in later life.
- increase family problem-solving skills to solve problems related to later-life changes.
- strengthen family relationships between generations
Adult Children and Aging Parents focuses on the needs of whole families rather than on aging as a problem. The programs are appropriate for:
- people who want to consider their own long-term decision making
- family members who want to be better prepared to participate in family decisions
- professionals or volunteers who work with older families
Topics
Lifetime Relationships: Changes for Adult Children and Their Aging Parents
Goal: To help family members recognize how changes in later life affect both aging parents and adult children
Tools for Talking: Strengthening Later-Life Relationships
Goal: To help family members build talking and listening skills for addressing changing needs in later life
Aging in Place: Talking about Changing Needs
Goal: To help family members recognize how housing needs may change in later life
Matters of Life and Death: Talking about Health Care Decisions
Goal: To help family members begin making decisions about advance directives
Who Really Pays for Long-Term Care? Family Dilemmas and Decisions
Goal: To help family members begin to talk about and plan for financing long-term health care needs
Where is it When You Need it? Organizing Records and Documents
Goal: To help family members understand the value of organizing important family documents and financial records.
Talking about Legal Decisions in Later-life Families
Goal: To help family members identify important legal questions related to planning for later life
Topics are designed to be combined in a series of two or three workshops for either adult children or older parents. Each component can also be used as a separate program. Learning experiences balance the need for specific information about critical later-life decisions with the equally important need to understand family relationships and values.
Facilitators
Iowa State University Extension family resource management and family life specialists plan and facilitate the programs in cooperation with church groups, community colleges, public health nurses, hospice staff, area agencies on aging and other sponsoring groups. To learn about programs being offered in your area contact your county extension education director or Kyle Kostelecky.
Curriculum Materials
The Adult Children and Aging Parents curriculum is available for purchase for educators in family life and family resource management disciplines from Iowa State University Extension. Learn more about purchasing access to the curriculum materials.