Life Giving Dementia Care

GET CONFIDENCE, GIVE COMPASSION, FIND JOY AS A CAREGIVER What do you do first if someone you love gets a dementia diagnosis, and you’re their main caregiver. Where do you get help and what should you do first? What if you make mistakes and hurt them instead of help? What about the cost – do they have the resources to pay for care? And your family, friends, and boss – will they understand the new demands on your time and support you? Or will everything fall apart? CAN YOU REALLY DO THIS? Life Giving Dementia Care guides you to be a confident, compassionate caregiver for your loved one and for yourself. It’s like chatting with a friend who has “been there and done that,” candidly sharing their own fears, pain, joys, and lessons learned as a caregiver. Part how-to, part memoir, this book shows you step-by-step what to expect and how to plan from early symptoms and diagnosis through estate settlement. Inside, you'll learn about: Symptoms & Diagnosis Learning to be a Caregiver Medical, Legal & Financial Planning Taking Care of Yourself Adding Care Professionals Hospice & End-Of-Life Settling the Estate Healing Yourself Sometimes poignant, sometimes laugh out loud funny, Life Giving Dementia Care will help you develop confidence, strengthen your compassion and lead you to find joy in this tough journey called Caregiving. With patience, understanding, and a dedicated support community...YES, YOU CAN DO THIS!

Caregivers can be spouses, partners, adult children, parents, other relatives (siblings, aunts, nieces/nephews, in-laws, grandchildren), friends, neighbors. Whatever your relationship with the person you're caring for, it's important that you add the title caregiver to the list of things you are. Without identifying yourself as a caregiver, you won't know to search for resources that can help you navigate this new role. But caregivers play other roles as well. You may be employed full or part-time. You may be raising children, or be a volunteer, a spouse, have other family commitments. Adding caregiving to that list can easily lead to frustration and exhaustion. You might need to navigate social service systems, call doctors while you're at work, advocate for the care receiver, and take care of their day-to-day needs, while you try to do all of those same things for yourself and your family. You are rarely trained to do the broad range of tasks you are asked to do as a caregiver. As a result, you may end up, for example, with back strain because you haven't had the benefit of training from a physical therapist on how to correctly transfer someone from bed to chair, or wheelchair to car. Or you find yourself battling with your mother who has Alzheimer's because you have not learned the skills necessary to communicate with someone with a cognitive impairment.

"When Someone You Know Is Living in a Dementia Care Community is an accessible guide offering answers to such questions as: How do I choose a place for my loved one to live? What can I find out by visiting a candidate memory-care community twice? What do I do if my loved one asks about going home? How can I improve the quality of my visits? What is the best way to handle conflict between residents, or between the resident and staff? How can I cope with my loved one's sundowning? What do I do if my loved one starts a romantic relationship with another resident?An indispensable book for family members and friends of people with dementia, When Someone You Know is Living in a Dementia Care Community touches the heart while explaining how to make a difficult situation better.

A dementia diagnosis can frighten and devastate all who are affected. When a husband is diagnosed with dementia, his wife is at risk of becoming the "hidden patient." Sometimes the responsibilities of caring for a husband with dementia causes stress leading to caregiver burnout. Caregiving wives may feel trapped, obligated or compelled to go it alone at the expense of their own well-being. Others find many rewards in caring and give of themselves to a fault - "until death do us part." Asking for help can be difficult for caregivers, for many reasons. Gaining knowledge about dementia and its emotional impacts can provide comfort and improve confidence. Practical tips and solutions can offer hope in challenging situations. This survival guide and workbook is a vital companion for caregivers. You will refer to "Caring for a Husband with Dementia" often on your caregiving journey.

Making Tough Decisions about End-of-Life Care in Dementia is a lifeline, an invaluable guide to assist in the late stage of dementia.

Confidence to Care is the essential handbook for the family caregiver offering practical insights to understanding, managing and preventing the behavioral symptoms associated with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Touching, personal stories come together with practical and easy-to-access tips and techniques drawn from decades of caregiving experience by internationally-recognized experts. This cutting-edge resource will help the family caregiver confidently deal with the most common issues associated with dementia. In addition, advice about how to care for yourself while caring for others is essential. The number of people worldwide living with dementia illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease is set to nearly double every 20 years, reaching 65.7 million in 2030 and 115.4 million in 2050, according to Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI). Though research continues, there is currently no cure for Alzheimer's disease. But until there is a cure, there is care. Confidence to Care includes chapters offering caregiving strategies and recommends other resources for the family caregiver. This book is the most practical dementia care tool available and unique in its content and presentation.

Care-giving in dementia is a new speciality with its own rapidly growing body of knowledge. This second volume of contributions from leading practitioners and researchers around the world is a handbook for all those involved in 'hands on' caring, or in planning care, for persons with dementia. Volume 2 of Care-Giving in Dementia provides a rich source of information on most recent thinking about individualized long-term care of both dementia sufferers and their families. Key themes in Volume 2 are: * the subjective experience of dementia * the provision of care for family carers * differing cultural perspectives of dementia * the crucial importance of life-history information for understanding a person's reaction to their illness. Chapters on the search for an ethical framework and the best environment within which to provide care are particularly timely.