So What is This About?

Alzheimer's Disease -- The Dignity Within:
A Handbook for Caregivers, Family, and Friends
(Demos Medical Publishing: New York, 2006)
Winner of American Journal of Nursing (107:34, January 2007) 2006 Book of the Year Award
Price $16.95

Of the estimated 5 million Americans who have Alzheimer's disease, more than 7 in 10 live at home, primarily cared for by family and friends. Alzheimer's Disease -- The Dignity Within: A Handbook for Caregivers, Family, and Friends is written in a workbook format aimed at increasing the caregiver's knowledge of the disease. As a result, these caregivers -- whether family members, friends or health professionals -- will be better equipped to nurture the “dignity within” persons living with Alzheimer's disease and feel more confident doing so. The book is a tool for caregivers that will impact not only the way they relate to persons with Alzheimer's disease, but other relationships as well.

Recommended by Alzheimer’s Australia, this book’s purpose is to increase the caregiver’s knowledge of the disease and to help both the caregiver and the patient to live with a sense of dignity, importance and self-esteem. It contains information on how to care for a person with Alzheimer's disease by mapping out each stage of the disease and showing what can be done from a caregiver’s point of view in each stage. In addition, the book discusses how important it is for caregivers to take care of themselves. It educates readers with easy-to-understand charts and sketches on what physically happens in the brain during the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Its five sections focus on the nature of Alzheimer's disease and on being a caregiver, covering topics such as tips for caregivers; challenges and solutions; changes in the brain that are responsible for the problems associated with the disease; and much, much more.

However, the most important tenet of the book is that we can better care for people with Alzheimer's disease by recognizing and nurturing the essence within a person living through the different stages of the disease. Both caregivers and people affected by Alzheimer's can live with a sense of dignity, importance, and self-esteem.

Contents:
Part I. Being A Caregiver: Challenges and Solutions
Part II. The Reluctant Caregiver: A Husband and Wife’s Personal Story
Part III. True Stories: Relationships Between Persons Affected by the Disease, Their Caregivers, Family Members, and Friends
Part IV. Caregiving Styles: Three Ways To Respond
Part V. Alzheimer’s Disease: Changes In The Brain

REVIEWS:
" The book is lovingly crafted, gentle, and compassionate in its approach...We have only begun to know how to help caregivers because we have focused our attention mostly on the [affected individual]. This book insightfully turns our attention in the right direction."--Doody's Reviews

“ Sometime ago my husband told me of an introduction to a company report he had heard in which the document was compared to a bikini -- what it revealed was important but what it covered was critical. This book which I can thoroughly recommend, is certainly revealing and contains much that is critical for caregivers to know. I believe every professional working with those with dementia and their caregivers would do well to have a copy. The book lends itself to reading straight through and then to being used as necessary as a reference. It is easy to find specific information as the framework is helpful and logical. The section on the spiritual needs of those with dementia and the needs of children were welcome topics.

Bearing in mind than those with Alzheimer’s disease do not necessarily conform to medical models the advice is straightforward and practical, just what a caregiver needs. It is reassuring to find that what one has been doing and has discovered by trial and error is recommended and appropriate. I wish I had had this book when I set out on the caring journey.”

Barbara Woodward Carlton, Quality Research in Dementia, Alzheimer’s Society, G. B. (Published online in Wiley InterScience)

About the Authors: All co-authors have experience as educators and as caregivers to persons with Alzheimer’s disease.

Patricia R. Callone, MA, MRE, (Pat) is the Vice President for Institutional Relations at Creighton University. For six years she served on the Board of Directors of the Alzheimer’s Association Midlands Chapter.

Barbara C. Vasiloff, MA, is the co-founder and President of Discipline With Purpose, Inc., and Lecturer in the Department of Education in the College of Arts and Sciences, Creighton University.

Roger A. Brumback, MD, is a Professor of Pathology and Psychiatry and the Chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Creighton University School of Medicine.

Janaan Manternach, DMin, is a well-respected educator and author of religious education materials.

Connie Kudlacek, BA, served as the Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association Midlands Chapter from 1986 through 2006.

Demos Medical Publishing
386 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016
www.demosmedpub.com