Books To Help Understand Dementia

[grove]

Hello Every Body , My Dad has Mild / Moderate Dementia for 3 Years & apart from working in 2 Different Care Homes ( as a Kitchen Asst) do not have a proper "Understanding" as such on Dementia ( Except to look on Altz Web Site ) & read the Fact Sheets ...... Would like more help & have been to the Libaray & they do not have any thing to help . However the very nice Staff looked on the P C & found 3 Books


* Memory handbook , a practical guide to undestanding & manging early Dementia .... Author Charles Twining ..... Please has any body read this ? & if so was it helpful ?


* Altz & other Dementias ( Answers at your finger tips ) Author Harry Cayton

* The forgetting understanding Altz a biography of a disease ..... David Shenk

Do not want to be reading a "Nurse / D r's Type Book " ..... The Memory Handbook looks the Best , any Advice please would be welcome ( the Books would come from another Library on the Coast / not nerar me ! & want to make sure order right Book ! )

Many Thanks


Love Grove x x

 

[creativesarah]

capturing moments of joy by jolene b something google it with name and and title and is a good positive! book easy to dip into

 

[Jo1958]

Grove, hi
I would order them all and see what you think, if they are sending one they might as well send them off. I'm sure your library will try to find any other books that people mention on here, I found our local library wonderful when hubby first started with dementia.

I know that some Alzheimers' Society branches have good collections of books, John mentioned his Selby branch have a good collection when we met on Monday, I would contact your local branch and see what they have that you could borrow and read.

Not really 'holiday reading' I hope you find books that help.
With best wishes from Jo

 

[Sox]

Hi Grove - I have found The Daily Telegraph Alzheimer's Disease by Dr William Molloy and Dr Paul Caldwell to be very useful, particularly the page of "Stages" of this horrible disease. My daughter found it originally in a second hand book shop in York. It is fairly old - first published in 1998 but we both thought it very helpful so I decided to purchase a copy. I found mine on Amazon, can't remember how much it was but fairly cheap as it was second hand. It is handy to check things as AZ changes. Hope this helps. Take care. Sox

 

[grove]

Hello , C Sarah , Jo1958 & Sox thank you all for your kind & helpful replies .Will look on Amazon for the Daily Telegraph Book & also ask our local Altz Group if they have any Books ( had never thought of that ! )

Many thanks once again


Love Grove x

 

[Tender Face]

You might find this helpful, Grove – from the AS website ...

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=674

Love, Karen, x

 

[piedwarbler]

I liked "Keeper" by Andrea Gillies, published by Short Books, and this one has a horrible title "The Selfish Pig's Guide to Caring" but I was lent it by my local AS society adviser and it is a good book. x

 

[KingB]

The Forgetting by Shenk is excellent - really helpful to read the stories of individuals living with the disease alongside the history of research and the science of the disease.

The Simplicity of Dementia: A Guide for Family and Carers by Huub Buijssen is a bit more wafty I think - but a very useful framework for understanding a little bit of how the sufferer is feeling. I found it very helpful emotionally - but am not sure I totally buy into it.

Keeper : Living with Nancy is a superb book - written with great honesty by a carer it helped me to get a bit of perspective on my own situation. Well worth reading.

I've just ordered Alzheimer's Disease (The Daily Telegraph) - thanks for the pointer Sox!

I think it is great to read anything and everything you can - and then pick the bones out of it. BUT read plenty of other stuff too - its not great to dwell on dementia issues to the exclusion of all else - a little light reading on totally different subjects to rest and distract the mind will help too.

 

[littlebrownbird]

I've just read 'Keeping Mum' by Marianne Talbot which was very good. It is about her time looking after her Mum who had Alzheimers but it also has snippets of information throughout the book which are in coloured boxes making them easy to latch on to.
I have also got out of our library a book called 'Activities that stimulate the mind' by Emilia Bazan-Salazar. I think it is mainly for use by activity co-ordinators in nursing homes but it has some good things that anyone can use, in fact I plan to use some of the activities with my guide company!!
I hope your library has them and you find them useful.

 

[CraigC]

Hi Grove,

I've read a few books on dementia and two stick out.

Dementia at you fingertips - Harry Cayton, Dr Nori Grapham, Dr James Warner.
Particularly like this as it is in questions and answers kind of format and works really well in my opinion. Make sure you get the latest edition.

The Forgetting - David Shenk

Don't forget to check out the Alzheimer's Society website which has a host of book reviews and details on books about dementia. Very useful.

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/s...documentID=674&categoryID=200120&pageNumber=1

And loads of links and some free publications too at:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents.php?categoryID=200308

Kind Regards
Craig

 

[sid]

Hi Grove
I have just, belatedly, read your request.
When my wife was initially diagnosed we were just informed of the verdict -nothing else.

As you probably appreciate, a lot depends not only on the speed of the disease's progress, its potential individual effects and also the individual capacity of the carer.

In order to learn, what no one seemed to be prepared to tell us, I found that
Altzheimers Disease by Molloy & Caldwell provides a good basic understanding of both cause, effect and progression whilst
Dementia by Clayton, Graham & Moore answers 267 of the questions that you may come across in your journey.
Both were available at local book stores [as they are ISBN they should also be available in main libraries]

I hope that this information will be of some help to you
My best wishes
sid

 

[Lulu]

The best I have read are:

Keeping Mum, Marianne Talbot

The Simplicity of Dementia, Huub Buijsson

The Daily Telegraph Alzheimer's Disease by Dr William Molloy and Dr Paul Caldwell

and Keeper, Living With Nancy. (Gillies)

They are in no particular order, but Keeping Mum closely mirrors our own experience to date, and so sensitively written, and the Daily Telegraph book is excellent.

 

[chrisban]

The book I wld recommend is contented dementia by Oliver James.
It has lots of practical ideas as well
as explaining what is happening. It concentrates on being person centred. I found it very positive.
Love Chris

 

[Nutty Nan]

Books

Hi,
My favourite and most informative and liberating book was "Learning to Speak Alzheimers" by Joanne Koenig-Coste. It was instrumental in making me realise that there is no such thing as "normal".

I have also recently read 'Keeping Mum', which contains lots of useful tips and links, and the one I wish I had read much earlier on and which showed how much can be achieved by "digging a little deeper" to understand the sufferer's frustrations and actions (re-actions) is "And Still the Music Plays".

Best wishes, Carmen

 

[amanda75]

i have read keeping mum and i think its a fab book.

at the moment im reading one house, 3 generations by andrea gillies, she writes about her mother in law and the way the the illness is and then she puts peices in there about the medical side of things, i find it quite interesting.

 

[grove]

Hello To All , who so kindly replied to me you have all been so helpful & you have all given me a lot to think about in what to read ! Sadly at my Local Library they only have 3 Books on the subject ! The Book i asked for is for some reason a Reference Book only & it would have to be ordered out of another Library so have "reseverved " a Book called Alzheimer's & other Dementia's by Harry Cayton ...... Answers at your fingertips it says ...... sounds good . Hopefully will not be long untill can go & get it
( Its on Loan at the moment )

Many Thanks once again

Love Grove x x

 

[MirandaT]

I found 'Contented Dementia' by Oliver James useful when we were caring for mum at home. It was easy to understand.
I've just read 'Telling Tales About Dementia: Experiences of Caring'. A collection of writing by carers - very moving, easy to read and really makes you feel you are not alone. Not so good if you're mainly wanting factual info.

 

[grove]

Hello Every Body , Many thanks to all who kindly replied & gave me helpful Info , have ordered from Amozan The Daily Telegraph "Alzheimer's Disease " & also going to collect a Altz & other Dementias from the Libaray to day

Once again many thanks


Love Grove x x

 

[Petrina]

I'm reading Contented Dementia but I'm not comfortable with it, particularly not asking questions. How do you allow a person with dementia to make choices if you never ask them questions? Surely even basic questions like "does that taste nice?" "want a kiss?" could be managed in all but late-stage dementia?

Maybe that's the key to what it's about - maybe it's intended for a far later stage of dementia than my father has.

But my grandmother had dementia and eventually died with it, with very little idea of her surroundings, quite delusional about where she was and confusing me with my mother, but she could still respond to questions like "want some more?" or "another blanket?" or "hug?" or "do you like that?".

Again, maybe it's intended for a different sort of dementia? My grandmother had vascular dementia like my father. She spent her last seven years in an asylum, but had had it for some years by the time she went in.

 

[Symphony]

The Simplicity of Dementia by Huub Buijssen

I found this book very helpful, it is written in a manner easy to understand, and by someone with a lot of experience. available from Amazon Symphony.