Caregivers are often frustrated with trying to navigate the senior environment of insurance, hospitals, doctors, and services. Many times when a health crisis happens with an older adult, it is the adult children driving the care and they have no experience with what their parents are going through and what alternatives would provide the best outcome. They are also taking care of families and working fulltime so time is limited. That is what Diane Keefe experienced with her mother who had mini-strokes and then developed Alzheimer's disease. After she and her brother went through the experience of managing care, she felt they could have done a better job if they had known where to go for resources, services and understood the senior environment better. It impassioned her to work on her Masters in Gerontology; start her own geriatric care management business and then later to decide to work on education and advocacy for family caregivers.

Caring for Parents Together is a talk show for family caregivers that teaches them about the issues, services and resources in the senior arena. Every Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. on IWatchRadio.com, viewers can watch her interview professionals in the field of aging about how to select housing, in-home agencies, manage medications and much more. She has interviewed caregivers about their challenges and different organizations about their services. In January, she will be interviewing someone from Society for the Blind about Vision Challenges in the Elderly; The Center for Speech and Hearing about Hearing Impairments in the Elderly, Alternative Hospice and LSS Hospice about the Role of Hospice at End of Life and Creative Financing for Older Adults with Althea West. For a list of upcoming and past programs and dates, go to http://caringforparentstogether.com. Viewers can see any past program by visiting the website and clicking on IWatchRadio tab. This allows them to access the programs when they need them.

Visit her website, www.caringforparentstogether.com, for information about different issues of caregiving. She offers a monthly newsletter about challenges in caregiving and is publishing a book, Blueprint for Care, which will be released in first quarter 2012. It will teach readers how to care and advocate for an older adult. She will also be offering a Caregiver Bootcamp to give family caregivers a crash course in caregiving for older adults. She plans to offer a Free Resources webinar in January and regularly thereafter so visit the website for details.