Why Dementia Makes Communication Difficult

Dementia brings many challenges, not least its ability to disrupt effective communication. The quality of communication plays a major role in how well people living with a dementia manage. When communication doesn't work well, the complications of dementia are compounded. Rather than only offering tips on what to say and how to say it, this book explores the underlying motivations of communication, so we can better understand why we say what we do, why we say it the way we do, what can go wrong, and how attempts to fix things can go awry. As well as considering why communication goes wrong in day-to-day conversations, the chapters offer advice on dealing with awkward moments, the question of deception, and the things we can and can't control in dementia. Readers are asked to reflect on their own role, and how they can manage their own behaviours to avoid unintentionally blocking routes to productive communication. Including clear action points for carers, bystanders and people with a dementia diagnosis, this book shows how to approach communication to improve outcomes.

WINNER of the 2021 British Association for Applied Linguistics Book prize It is well recognized that when people are living with a dementia, effective communication can be a challenge for both them and those they interact with. Despite a plethora of good advice, it can be surprisingly hard to sustain constructive communicative behaviours and to integrate them successfully into routine daily care and interaction. The Dynamics of Dementia Communication asks why that is. What is it about communication, as a human social and cognitive practice, that makes it so difficult to manage the disruptions caused by dementia? Why is it so common to feel awkward, confused or irritated when talking with a person living with a dementia? Why is the experience of living with a dementia so personally and socially devastating? What approaches to communication would work best, and why? To answer these questions, the book integrates information from a wide range of different sources, covering the biological, social, and emotional factors associated with the dementia experience. New concepts and theoretical perspectives offer novel ways of thinking about the challenges of communication generally, and in the context of dementia. Topics explored include whether it is acceptable to deceive people living with a dementia and why society's failure to support people living with a dementia and their carers is so devastating. The final chapter suggests what people living with a dementia need if communication is to promote and protect everyone's well-being. By providing a deeper understanding of what topples the best-intentioned attempts at interaction, and by explaining why poor communication affects everyone involved, this book sets new agendas for improving the welfare of people living with a dementia, their families, and professional carers.

"This book asks why that is. What is it about communication, as a human social and cognitive practice, that makes it so difficult to manage the disruptions caused by dementia? Why is it so common to feel awkward, confused or irritated when talking with a person living with a dementia? Why is the experience of living with a dementia so personally and socially devastating? What approaches to communication would work best, and why?"--

Losing the ability to communicate can be a frustrating and difficult experience for people with dementia, their families and carers. As the disease progresses, the person with dementia may find it increasingly difficult to express themselves clearly, and to understand what others say. Written with both family and professional carers in mind, this book clearly explains what happens to communication as dementia progresses, how this may affect an individual's memory, language and senses, and how carers might need to adapt their approach as a result. Advocating a person-centred approach to dementia care, the author describes methods of verbal and non-verbal communication, techniques for communicating with people who can not speak or move easily, and strategies for communicating more effectively in specific day-to-day situations, including at mealtimes, whilst helping the person with dementia to bathe or dress, and whilst out and about. Exercises at the end of each chapter encourage the carer to reflect on their learning and apply it to their own circumstances, and guidelines for creating a life story with the person with dementia as a means of promoting good communication are also included. This concise, practical book is essential reading for family caregivers, professional care staff, and all those who work with, or who are training to work with, people with dementia.

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.

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.

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

The purpose of this book is to offer medical, health, and social care professionals who work in acute, medical, long-term, or community care settings insights into the impact of dementia on an individual’s communication interactions and how augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies could enhance these interactions. The first half of the text sets the scene for understanding the nature of dementia and its impact particularly on an individual’s social and emotional life and their language and communication; the second half introduces AAC and what it offers as a set of techniques to support and maintain conversational autonomy in those living with dementia. Table of Contents: • Section 1: The nature and impact of dementia • A description of dementia • Social and emotional impact of dementia • Language and cognitive-communication assessment and approaches to intervention • Section 2: Interventions mediated through augmentative and alternative communication • Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) • Developing AAC interventions: A participatory assessment and intervention process • Communication partner AAC training and support • What everyone should know about dementia, AAC, and conversational partner training