Alzheimer S Care With Dignity

Award Winning Finalist National Best Book Awards 2008 USA Book News, Best in Health for Aging/50+

"A new ethics guideline for caregivers of "deeply forgetful people" and a program on how to communicate and connect based on 30 years of community dialogues through Alzheimer's organizations across the globe"--

The revolutionary how-to guidebook that details ways to make it easier to provide dementia home care for people experiencing Alzheimer's or dementia. Alzheimer's home care is possible! Dementia with Dignity explains the groundbreaking new approach: the DAWN Method(R), designed so families and caregivers can provide home care. It outlines practical tools and techniques to help your loved one feel happier and more comfortable so that you can postpone the expense of long-term care. In this book you'll learn: -The basic facts about Alzheimer's and dementia, plus the skills lost and those not lost; -How to recognize and respond to the emotions caused by Alzheimer's or dementia, and avoid dementia-related behaviors; -Tools for working with an impaired person's moods and changing sense of reality; -Home care techniques for dealing with hygiene, safety, nutrition and exercise issues; -A greater understanding and appreciation of what someone with Alzheimer's or dementia is experiencing, and how your home care can increase home their emotional wellbeing. Wouldn't dementia home care be easier if you could get on the same page as your loved one? When we understand what someone experiencing Alzheimer's or dementia is going through, we can truly help them enjoy more peace and security at home. This book will help you recognize the unmet emotional needs that are causing problems, giving you a better understanding and ability to address them. The good news about dementia is that home care is possible. There are infinitely more happy times and experiences to be shared together. Be a part of caring for, honoring, and upholding the life of someone you love by helping them experience Alzheimer's or dementia with dignity. Judy Cornish is the author of The Dementia Handbook-How to Provide Dementia Care at Home, founder of the Dementia & Alzheimer's Wellbeing Network(R) (DAWN), and creator of the DAWN Method. She is also a geriatric care manager and elder law attorney, member of the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) and the American Society on Aging (ASA).

The Dignity Within A Handbook for Caregivers, Family, and Friends Of the estimated 5 million Americans who have Alzheimer's disease, more than 70% live at home, with family and friends. Alzheimer's Disease: A Handbook for Caregivers, Family, and Friends is a unique resource for those caregivers so that they can be better equipped to nurture people living with Alzheimer's disease. This expert guide educates the reader on the physical changes in the brain as the disease progresses and outlines what can be done from a caregiver's standpoint at each stage. It stresses the importance of self-care in ensuring that you are prepared to support the person with Alzheimer's disease. Packed with tips and techniques from five authorities in the field, this book answers critical questions such as: What caregiving style will suit me best? What skills are likely to remain as Alzheimer's disease progresses? How do I balance my needs with the needs of the person I'm caring for? How do I find the time to rest and relax? When is it time to consider an assisted living community or a nursing home? And much more! The most important tenet of this book is that we can better care for people with Alzheimer's disease by recognizing the ''essence within'' a person living through the different stages of the disease. This positive approach will help both caregivers and people affected by Alzheimer's disease live with a sense of dignity, importance, and self-esteem.

The cultural and medical history of dementia and Alzheimer's disease by a leading psychiatrist and bioethicist who urges us to turn our focus from cure to care. Despite being a physician and a bioethicist, Tia Powell wasn't prepared to address the challenges she faced when her grandmother, and then her mother, were diagnosed with dementia--not to mention confronting the hard truth that her own odds aren't great. In the U.S., 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day; by the time a person reaches 85, their chances of having dementia approach 50 percent. And the truth is, there is no cure, and none coming soon, despite the perpetual promises by pharmaceutical companies that they are just one more expensive study away from a pill. Dr. Powell's goal is to move the conversation away from an exclusive focus on cure to a genuine appreciation of care--what we can do for those who have dementia, and how to keep life meaningful and even joyful. Reimagining Dementia is a moving combination of medicine and memoir, peeling back the untold history of dementia, from the story of Solomon Fuller, a black doctor whose research at the turn of the twentieth century anticipated important aspects of what we know about dementia today, to what has been gained and lost with the recent bonanza of funding for Alzheimer's at the expense of other forms of the disease. In demystifying dementia, Dr. Powell helps us understand it with clearer eyes, from the point of view of both physician and caregiver. Ultimately, she wants us all to know that dementia is not only about loss--it's also about the preservation of dignity and hope.

A revolutionary new approach to Alzheimer’s care, focusing on a patient’s strengths to maintain connections with others and the world There currently is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease— though it can be treated. For the last fifteen years, John Zeisel, Ph.D. has spearheaded a movement to treat Alzheimer’s non-pharmacologically by focusing on the mind’s strengths. I’m Still Here is a guidebook to Dr. Zeisel’s treatment ideas, showing the possibility and benefits of connecting with an Alzheimer’s patient through their abilities that don’t diminish with time, such as understanding music, art, facial expressions, and touch. By harnessing these capacities, and by using other strategies, it’s possible to offer the person a quality life with connection to others and to the world. In March 2013, Dr. Zeisel and his work will be the focus of the program airing on public television stations entitled “Hopeful Aging,” bringing his life-changing ideas to a national audience.

Discovering how to live with dementia "I'm a stranger in a strange land," sighed the dignified gentleman Janet L. Ramsey met walking down the care-center hallway. Those words, her first glimpse of the confusion that comes with dementia, led her into a lifetime of work with older adults. If you have been diagnosed with dementia or you are accompanying someone with this illness, you may find yourself on a journey that began with a sudden diagnosis and an acute sense of panic. Or perhaps your journey started gradually, as you noticed changes in yourself or in your partner or parent. Whether sudden or gradual, the impact of a diagnosis of dementia reorganizes a family's entire life. Drawing on her own experience as a pastor, teacher, therapist, and family caregiver, as well as on interviews with eight family and professional caregivers, Janet L. Ramsey helps caregivers and those with impaired memories learn as they listen to each other. She also shows them how the Holy Spirit can awaken their imagination and understanding while they discover how to live with dementia.

The notion of quality of life has for several decades beenwell-established in ethical debate about health care and the careof older people. Dignity in Care for Older Peoplehighlights the notion of dignity within the care of the elderly,focusing on the importance of theoretical concepts. Primarily based on a Research Project, Dignity and Older Europeans,funded by the European Commission, this book provides a thoroughinvestigation of the concept of dignity and related concepts suchas quality of life and autonomy. It includes a chapter devoted tothe dignity of human embodiment, emphasizing the importance of thenotion of the lived body in the context of elderly care. As aresult of the conceptual study a model of dignity emerges in whichfour variants of dignity stand out: dignity of merit, dignity asmoral status, dignity of identity and Menschenwürde (thespecifically human value). From this follows a discussion of howthese variants of dignity can be used in characterizing the care ofthe elderly. The notions of dignity and dignified care arediscussed particularly in relation to demented persons and dyingpersons. The book also contains a chapter on the dignity of thedead person. International in focus, Dignity in Care for Older Peopleprovides a contemporary discussion of the care of older people, andwill be of use to qualified nurses and social care practitionersworking with older people, as well as those on ethics andgerontology courses.