Cover Image: What You Really Want to Know About Life with Dementia

What You Really Want to Know About Life with Dementia

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Member Reviews

This book will be extremely helpful for relations, carers and close family members, especially for people who live in the UK,to guide them through the various types of dementia and what can be done to help the person suffering from this terrible affliction. Highly recommended.

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This was a great book. I live with someone that has dementia and it's so hard to deal with. Having a book with others' stories and advice on what to do was very helpful to read. This is mostly UK based but that didn't really matter much to me. Overall, a great read.

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A comprehensive guide to understanding and living with dementia. The authors draw on their extensive experience working in dementia care to provide a wealth of practical advice and insights for people living with dementia, their families, and caregivers.

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If you have a loved one who suffers from dementia then this book is a MUST read. It is warm, friendly and approachable while also offering the credentials of the experts so that you know any advice is of a high quality.
The format is fantastic. A life story from a relative of a dementia patient followed by specialist commentary explaining what is going on in the brain of someone who’s symptoms present like this, or explaining why the ways of interacting with the sufferer are helpful such as talking to the person about their life story and encouraging them to tell it to you. There are also suggestions of activities you can do with the person or do for them so as to help maintain meaningful connections with your loved one. And each section has a bibliography for reference and further reading of anything mentioned by the experts.
I know I will refer to this book again and again as both of my parents are suffering from dementia of different causes and what I experience with one of them is not the same as how I find interacting with the other.
A must read.

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My husband has Alzheimer's and I am his sole caregiver, so I was glad to read this book and hoped it would give me some tips on how to handle his mood swings and confusion. This book gave stories from various caregivers on their situations and various activities to help the folks they are caring for. It gave the caregiver's account, commentary by a specialist, and Admiral Nurse advice (I think these admiral nurses are specific to the UK). All the situations were different, so I guess there's some commonalities, but each person has their own individual challenges.

Overall this was a worthwhile read and I did get a few tips and some more insight in handling my husband. Alzheimer's is such a devastating disease for the victim as well as to the caregiver and family. Every day brings new challenges and none of them are easy.

Thanks to Jessica Kingsley Publishers through Netgalley for an advance copy.

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I was interested to read this book in the hope of some guidance in how to navigate my journey into the unknown of dementia with a close family member. We are currently feeling our way through the early stages so I find myself grabbing onto anything in the hope of support. This book was one such source of hoped support.
I found the personal stories of families of loved ones with dementia heartening. This is a lonely place to be at the moment, so it was good to read others’ experiences, and although not a reflection of my own, to date, it was good to know my family are not alone.
I found the commentary after each story very interesting, from an academic & personal perspective. Giving professional reflections on each story was an interesting way of writing this book. Not only did it feel like each personal story was valued but also the reflections & reasoning that were given to each story allowed insight into each experience.
Useful links were included at the end of each chapter, associated with the topic discussed.
I found that some chapters were less relevant to my experience than others (for example those about early onset dementia); however, the commentary after these were still interesting & informative to read.
A very useful book for families of those with dementia, but equally I can see this is a valuable resource for health care professionals & students.

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I found this interesting but difficult to read as we are going through the dementia process with my dad who has Alzheimer’s. I liked how it was written, ie someone’s experience followed by expert commentary. It gave many helpful suggestions.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

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While probably aimed mostly at a UK crowd, this info is certainly relevant elsewhere. It's helpful to have others chime in, as done here, so reader's get multiple perspectives. Helpful!

Thanks very much for the free ARC for review!!

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