Engaging And Communicating With People Who Have Dementia

Based on: Can do activities for adults with Alzheimer's disease: strength-based communication and programming / Eileen Eisner. Pro-Ed. c2001.

Creativity is preserved in dementia long after other abilities are lost, so that making art provides rich opportunities for meaningful engagement for people with this disease. Creative Connections(TM) in Dementia Care provides care partners with the knowledge and easy-to-follow steps they need to successfully implement art projects in a group or one-on-one setting--and no art experience is required! Written for anyone who cares for a person with dementia--family members, friends, and professionals-- this how-to guide is packed with guidance to help enhance communication, interactions, task breakdown, and problem-solving efforts while also encouraging the abilities of each participant. People with dementia enjoy valuable benefits when they actively engage in a creative activity: ? stress is reduced ? memories can be accessed ? mood and self-esteem are elevated ? a sense of personal identity and achievement is experienced To help create these opportunities, Creative Connections(TM) in Dementia Care provides 10 basic art project "recipes," detailing supplies, instructions, and activity modifications, as well as colorful, step-by-step photographs that show how to demonstrate and lead the activity for the person with dementia. Each art activity is failure-free and does not require memory skills to complete. Bring joy and a powerful sense of connection to the lives of people experiencing dementia with this one-of-a-kind guide!

Christine Bryden was 46 years old when she was diagnosed with dementia, and in this book she describes her remarkable emotional, physical and spiritual journey in the three years immediately following. Offering rare first-hand insights into how it feels to gradually lose the ability to undertake tasks most people take for granted, it is made all the more remarkable by Christine's positivity and strength, and deep sense, drawn in part from her Christian faith, that life continues to have purpose and meaning. Originally published in Australia in 1998, the book is brought up-to-date with a new Foreword, Preface and Appendix, in which Christine explains how the disease has progressed over the years, and how she is today. It also contains many previously unseen photographs of Christine and her family, from around the time of her diagnosis up to the present day. Inspirational and informative in equal measure, Who will I be when I die? will be of interest to other people with dementia and their families, as well as to dementia care professionals.

Providing people with dementia with opportunities to engage in creative activity can play a crucial role in maintaining and enhancing communication, and in reinforcing personhood and identity. This thoughtful book describes how people with dementia, and the people who work with and care for them, can foster and develop a creative approach, and provides rich and varied ideas for creative activities. The authors explore the concept of creativity - what exactly it is, its particular relevance for people with dementia and how to get into the creative 'flow'. They introduce a range of creative art forms, including poetry and story-telling, collage, drama, music-making, photography, textiles and working with wood and metal, and suggest possibilities for employing them in a range of settings, and with people of all abilities. Consideration is given to the practicalities of facilitating such creative work, including how to organise and run sessions, how to involve people with dementia and their carers, and how to reflect upon the experience. Practice examples are included throughout the book, as well as the comments and observations of people with dementia, and many examples of the artwork and poetry the authors have created with people with dementia over the years. Brimming with ideas, suggestions and helpful guidance, this is an essential resource for all those who work with people with dementia, and an inspiring read for people with dementia and their families.

Person-centered care for persons with dementia has been developed and expanded over the last few decades. Speech-language pathologists are uniquely positioned to understand the striking impact that communication challenges have on persons with dementia and their caregivers, and can lead the charge to improve access to communication and participation. This volume serves as a starting point and reference manual for those who want to provide person-centered and life-enhancing services to persons with dementia, and to inspire the continued generation of quality research to demonstrate the value of cognitive-communication, behavioral, and caregiver interventions. It serves as a call to action for an interprofessional team of healthcare providers across healthcare settings to promote meaningful life engagement in persons with dementia using evidence-based assessment and intervention approaches. This volume provides background on the evolution of caring for persons with dementia, as well as a description of the diagnostic process for dementia syndromes and the cognitive and communication characteristics of dementias with an emphasis on Alzheimer’s dementia. Its chapters cover the person-centered assessment process for persons with cognitive and communicative disorders of dementias; intervention approaches for the wide variety of cognitive, communicative, eating/swallowing, and behavioral symptoms and consequences of dementia syndromes; reimbursement and documentation issues for various settings in which persons with dementia are seen; and issues and challenges of quality of life and end-of-life care.

Societies around the world are concerned about dementia and the other forms of cognitive impairment that affect many older adults. We now know that brain changes typically begin years before people show symptoms, which suggests a window of opportunity to prevent or delay the onset of these conditions. Emerging evidence that the prevalence of dementia is declining in high-income countries offers hope that public health interventions will be effective in preventing or delaying cognitive impairments. Until recently, the research and clinical communities have focused primarily on understanding and treating these conditions after they have developed. Thus, the evidence base on how to prevent or delay these conditions has been limited at best, despite the many claims of success made in popular media and advertising. Today, however, a growing body of prevention research is emerging. Preventing Cognitive Decline and Dementia: A Way Forward assesses the current state of knowledge on interventions to prevent cognitive decline and dementia, and informs future research in this area. This report provides recommendations of appropriate content for inclusion in public health messages from the National Institute on Aging.

Christine Bryden was a top civil servant and single mother of three children when she was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 46. Dancing with Dementia is a vivid account of her experiences of living with dementia, exploring the effects of memory problems, loss of independence, difficulties in communication and the exhaustion of coping with simple tasks. She describes how, with the support of her husband Paul, she continues to lead an active life nevertheless, and explains how professionals and carers can help. This book is a thoughtful exploration of how dementia challenges our ideas of personal identity and of the process of self-discovery it can bring about.