Dementia: Loving Care with a Therapeutic Benefit (ePub)

Caregivers finally have a book that speaks directly about managing behaviors such as rummaging, anxiety, decreased communication, confusion, apathy, repetitive questioning, paranoia, aggression, memory loss and declining mobility. What do you do when mother is digging in the trash trying to organize what she finds? What do you do when grandpa has not changed his clothes for two weeks? What do you do when dad is becoming agitated and yells at you for making suggestions of things to do? What do you do when your grandmother begins to wander? By design, this book provides simplified, straightforward, step-by-step guidance to learn successful strategies for providing loving care with a therapeutic benefit. The authors are practicing speech-language pathologists and experts in therapeutic interventions and strategies to manage dementia induced behaviors. They travel across the U.S. teaching their method of behavior management and are international speakers on this topic. Dementia: Loving Care is not a book about drugs and research for the cure. It is about teaching caregivers how to manage dementia induced behaviors. This book speaks directly to those who have the daily responsibility for a loved one who may be demonstrating what many term as odd or inappropriate behavior. As a caregiver, have you felt the cycle of frustration, anger and then guilt? As professionals, Watson and Shadowens know this cycle to be true for most caregivers. As therapists, they have counseled many families over the years. Why is Dementia: Loving Care different? The focus of this book is an approach to dementia behavior management that separates Watson and Shadowens from the others. Early in their practice, they realized there is not a one-size-fits-all approach that is successful because people with dementia are highly varied in their behavior patterns. These two experts used their experience to develop a method for caregivers to use not one, but four evidence-based interventions and strategies and use them in conjunction with one another. Caregivers are educated in knowledge and use of all four and encouraged to try each one, depending on the behavior requiring management and how the person responds to an intervention. This book includes descriptions of many dementia induced behaviors accompanied by helpful suggestions. This book will teach the caregiver about 'staging' their loved one and why this is a critical piece to the puzzle surrounding behavior management. This information is the key to providing the caregiver with a realistic expectation (vs. unrealistic expectation) of what their loved one has the capacity to accomplish. (Example: it may be time to eliminate the words 'don t you remember'? from your vocabulary). Readers of Watson and Shadowens new book will be surprised by the simplicity of the strategies that can alter the household dynamics, reverse your loved one s anxiety, confusion, odd or inappropriate behaviors and restore a sense of balance. Clearly people want to do the right thing. The problem arises when you are living it from morning to night and the behaviors become overwhelming and you don t know what to do. Watson and Shadowens carefully and thoughtfully convey to caregivers that throughout this journey they should always keep in mind this is no one s fault, and the person with dementia is generally unaware of their loss of memory and other cognitive and physical abilities. Watson and Shadowens goal in writing this book is to help caregivers find strength in understanding the dementia journey, and empowerment in the knowledge that there are ways to manage this disease. You will find these pages a useful guide and a daily resource of practical and functional ways to interact with your loved one.