How to Live Well with Dementia by Innes, Anthea; O’Connell, Megan E.; Geoghegan, Carmel;

Short description:

How to Live Well with Dementia: Expert Help for People Living with Dementia and their Family, Friends, and Carer Partners provides an array of essential guidance about the different aspects of dementia for all whose lives are touched by dementia, including people living with dementia as well as their support network.

Long description:

How to Live Well with Dementia: Expert Help for People Living with Dementia and their Family, Friends, and Care Partners provides an array of essential guidance about the different aspects of dementia for all whose lives are touched by dementia, including people living with dementia and their support network.

Following an effective Q&A framework, this book offers valuable, easy-to-navigate guidance on the burning questions that those living with a dementia diagnosis and their carer/supporter need to know. Questions addressed include ‘How can I adjust to life with the diagnosis?’, ‘How can I plan for the future?’, and ‘How can we support our loved ones living with dementia?’. It provides expert explanations about changes in the brain and the various causes and types of dementia, as well as support on how to adjust to living with a diagnosis. It also offers practical information about care planning and advanced directives, maintaining health and social connections, accessing appropriate community care, and supporting medical and hospital care. It concludes with important self-care information for care/support partners.

Written jointly by academic experts and experts through lived experience, this book is indispensable for people living with dementia, care partners, and anyone wanting to understand more about the condition, as well as health and social care professionals and students of health and social care.

“For those facing dementia, whether personally or as a caregiver, this book offers practical advice and heartfelt encouragement.”

--Christopher Barry, CEO, Alzheimer Society of Canada. 

“This excellent book helps us all to become proactive instead of just reactive, which will improve the lives of everyone who lives with or is affected by dementia. Finding out as much information as you can about living with dementia, then changing your life as you learn, helps make the symptoms and deficits less challenging to live with for yourself and those around you. This is a must-have book for those diagnosed, their families, and everyone involved in their care and support. This is a guide that I wish I had when first diagnosed. It starts at the beginning and accompanies you alongside your life with dementia, until the final chapter where it continues to support those left behind. All the information you need is in one place, written by experts, including those who have been directly affected- the experts by experience.”

--Chris Roberts, Chair of the European Working Group of People with Dementia (EWGPWD) and Ambassador for Alzheimer’s Society UK.

Table of Contents:

Introduction. Part 1. Chapter 1. Does something feel different? Is it time to seek a diagnosis?. Chapter 2. How do we adjust to life with the diagnosis?. Chapter 3. Planning for the future: What about advance care directives and care planning?. Part 2. Chapter 4. How can we promote and maintain social health and well-being when living with dementia?. Chapter 5. What care and support in the community might be accessed?. Chapter 6. How do I support the person living with dementia with hospital appointments and admissions?. Part 3. Chapter 7. How do we plan a move to long-stay care?. Chapter 8. How do we deal with end-of-life and palliative care?. Chapter 9. How is it possible to balance the needs of care partners and supporters? Looking after yourself. Conclusion.