What to Do When an Aging Parent Refuses Help
Most of us would rather give than receive. That’s certainly true of many proud older adults who have spent their lives helping others and now resist accepting needed help from their adult children. In this highly interactive workshop with clinical psychologist Barry J. Jacobs, Psy.D., coauthor of The AARP Caregiver Answer Book, we’ll talk about ways of using empathy and curiosity to help older adults accept help graciously. Case illustrations will be used throughout.
Date October 20, 2026
Hosted By WellMed Charitable Foundation
Barry J. Jacobs, PsyD
Barry J. Jacobs, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist, family therapist, and a healthcare consultant. A former magazine journalist, he is the author of The Emotional Survival Guide for Caregivers: Looking After Yourself and Your Family While Helping an Aging Parent (Guilford, 2006) and coauthor with his wife, Julia L. Mayer, PsyD, of AARP Meditations for Caregivers: Practical, Emotional, and Spiritual Support for You and Your Family (Hachette, 2016), AARP Love and Meaning After 50: The 10 Challenges to Great Relationships—and How to Overcome Them (Hachette, 2020), and The AARP Caregiver Answer Book (Guilford, 2025). He has also written a self-help column for caregivers for AARP.org since 2013. A board member of the Caregiver Action Network, a national family caregiver advocacy and support organization, and a former director of behavioral sciences for the Crozer Health Family Medicine Residency, he maintains a psychotherapy practice in Media, Pennsylvania, specializing in supporting individuals with chronic and serious illness and their caregivers. For seven years, he was the primary caregiver for his stepfather with Alzheimer’s disease and mother with vascular dementia.