ABSTRACT
40Parent care is a normative, mid-life responsibility for most American families, but religious communities need evidencebased models to help prepare congregational members for these religiously endorsed obligations. The purposes of this article are to discuss caregiving as a developmental task deserving attention by religious leaders; to briefly describe an efficacious parent care model for use by congregations; and to review the results from a feasibility study of the model with participants from two faith-based communities. Members of Protestant congregations in Alabama and Texas attended parent care readiness workshops, where they completed a structured Parent Care Readiness Assessment. Following completion, they were given evidence-based information on how to complete salient parent care tasks through lecture/discussions provided by workshop leaders and through a parent care CD-ROM with Internet links that they could use at home. At the Texas site, adult children and aging parent participants varied in how they rated the importance of care readiness tasks. The efficacy of interventions for participants at both sites is discussed. Implications for improving the model and developing proactive, congregation-based parent care ministries that strengthen generational relations in faith-based settings are discussed. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-HAWORTH. E-mail address: <docdelivery@ haworthpress.com> Website: https://www.HaworthPress.com>; © 2004 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.]
