This book should be required reading for every adult because the chances are every person will become a caretaker in some capacity for a parent, significant other, child or friend at some point in their lives. Ms. Applebaum offers comprehensive, useful and easily understood advice for all aspects of the care partner's journey.

I especially appreciated the information about conversations to have with care partners and the information about advocating for someone who may not be able to advocate for themselves. Included in each chapter are exercises to help think through aspects that have likely not occurred to the reader and actionable steps that may be taken.

I will definitely keep Stand By Me as a valuable resource for when I may need it in the future. Thank you Ms. Applebaum for creating this valuable guide.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon Element for the digital copy of Stand By Me: A Guide to Navigating Modern, Meaningful Caregiving by Allison Applebaum. The opinions in this review are my own.

STAND BY ME by Allison J. Applebaum, a clinical psychologist specializing in psycho-oncology, offers a unique perspective due to her professional role and her personal experience. This book is certainly very heartfelt and Applebaum provides an excellent overview of her experience caring for her much older father. There is valuable advice and reflection here, but one idea it raised for me is how individual each of these caregiving journeys truly are. The relationship(s) involved (spouse, child, sibling, friend) and the various health issues, of course, are determining factors, but so are specifics like finances, housing situation, and so on. STAND BY ME is a very reasonable guide for someone facing a terminal illness in a loved one. In those cases, the caregiver's emotional exhaustion is more readily understood. A drawback is that the text does not really cover other (perhaps more common?) situations in any real depth even though it is subtitled "A Guide to Navigating Modern, Meaningful Caregiving." Applebaum acknowledges "there is no one-size-fits all goals-of-care plan" and she lists questions relating to these topics, but more detail could be added. There is a list of further reading and notes comprise about ten percent of the text, but there are no lists of helpful websites and relevant organizations. Texts like Successfully Navigating Your Parents’ Senior Years or When Your Aging Parent Needs Help or Eldercare 101 provide broader overviews. 3.5 stars

One further note: a truly interesting aspect was learning about Applebaum's father’s accomplishments in the music industry where he arranged many songs, including "Stand By Me":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Applebaum