Skip to content
Coming soon

Help! Who's Going to Take Care of My Parents?

A Survival Guide When a Parent Falters

One Sunday, your parent tells you they fell last week. They're fine. They didn't want to say anything. And in that moment, you realize you have no idea what should happen next.

41 chaptersPaperback and ebook
Cover of the book “Help! Who's Going to Take Care of My Parents?”

There is a moment no one sees coming

Your father fell in the bathroom. Your mother came home from the hospital more tired than when she went in. The doctor said something you didn't quite understand, and no one dared to ask him to repeat it. Nothing is serious. Not yet. But something has changed, and you know it.

In the days that follow, the questions all arrive at once, and none of them can wait. Can he stay at home? Who stops by to see him, and when? Who pays for what? How do you talk about it with your sister, who lives far away and thinks you're overreacting? And you, how far will you go without sacrificing your job, your marriage, your sleep?

Between the moment nothing has happened and the moment decisions get made in a rush, often without them, there is a narrow window: the time when your parent can still say what they want. It is the only period when “deciding together” still means something. That window doesn't last, and you never know you're in it.

That is exactly the moment this book takes seriously.

What the book covers

Six subjects, the ones that all land at the same time:

  1. Anticipating the hard decisions
  2. Getting organized without wearing yourself out
  3. Dividing up roles among siblings
  4. Practical help
  5. Making sense of confusing behavior
  6. Setting your limits without guilt

The third one deserves a closer look: disagreement between brothers and sisters is what wears people down the most, and it is what people talk about the least. The book deals with dividing up roles. It does not promise to reconcile anyone.

What this book is not

  • A medical book: what it offers is information, never health advice, never the name of a disease.
  • A seven-step method: no two situations are alike, and a book that claimed otherwise would be lying to you from the very first page.
  • A book for when everything has gone wrong: it speaks to you while your parent is still making their own decisions.

There is no right time to read this book. There is only a time when it is still useful.

Detailed table of contents

Who this book is for

It is for adult children whose parent has already had a health problem but is still clear-headed and able to make their own decisions: that window between the moment nothing has happened yet and the moment it is too late. It is not meant for a parent who is doing very well and for whom nothing has happened yet, nor for situations where decisions are already being made on the parent's behalf, nor for professionals: it is not a professional manual.

Yvan Keyna holding his book

The right time to open it is before you need it.

41 chapters, one question at a time: where to start, what to say, when to decide, so you are no longer improvising at the worst possible moment.

Get notified when it's out
Yvan Keyna, smiling, in a burgundy shirt
Who writes

Yvan Keyna

Yvan Keyna is an entrepreneur, trainer and author. An entrepreneur for twenty years, with a master's-level degree in New Technologies and Sensory and Motor Disabilities (BAC+5), he runs Help! Press, a publishing house that will welcome several authors.

Learn more about him
For professionals

You support families every day

Retirement home or nursing home, home care service, local government, health insurer. Books in bulk for your residents, your clients or your teams.

Request a quote

The other book

Two books, two moments. Each one speaks to a different moment in what you are going through.

Cover of the book “Let's Remember Together”
Coming soonGame book · made for two

Let's Remember Together

For the visits when you run out of things to say.

Hear about upcoming books

Leave your email: one message per book, nothing else.

Your address is used only for these emails. Privacy policy

Help! Who's Going to Take Care of My Parents? — Help! Press