Do you know someone with Dementia? Or do you want to know how it affects people’s lives? If your answer is yes to either of these questions then this is the book for you. Carers’ experiences from interviews: Hygiene and clothes Night time Transport Family and friends Guilt Social services and social workers Care homes and day centres Hospital Laughter Finance Places to go for help

Reminiscence is a vital way to stimulate communication and promote confidence and self-worth in people with dementia. This practical guide is designed to give those who care for people with dementia a clear sense of how reminiscence can be used to greatly improve their quality of life. The book explores how reminiscence can contribute to person-centred dementia care and contains detailed descriptions of activities that can be used in a group setting, for one-to-one reminiscence at home or in a variety of care settings. Based on ideas developed and tested internationally over a period of ten years, the book offers imaginative approaches to reminiscence and a wealth of resources for use in a wide range of situations. The book includes advice on organising a reminiscence project and provides a useful planning tool for group sessions. Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today highlights the value of reminiscence for those with dementia and is an essential guide to good practice for family and professional carers.

This book draws on recent research and cutting-edge ideas about bereavement and carers’ experiences across the life course to explore carers’ experience of loss and discuss their specific needs prior and or following the death of those they care for. Whether care provided is related to a long term or life limiting condition, many carers experience a multitude of losses including indefinite loss characterised by the loss of a taken-for-granted future, and an inability to plan for the future. Carers may also experience anticipatory grief as multiple losses such as companionship, personal freedom, and control manifest. While many carers are dedicated and committed to their role, they are subject to burnout and disenfranchised grief. When the role of caregiver ends as a result of the death of those cared for, this can represent a major change and a period of significant adjustment for carers leading to a range of emotions experienced. This book presents and discusses research findings, practitioner perspectives, and a wealth of personal accounts to illuminate this vital but neglected area and extend our understanding of loss for carers across the life course. This interdisciplinary and interprofessional volume brings together authors from a wide range of backgrounds, including carers themselves. It is an important contribution to the burgeoning literature around the role and experiences of carers and will interest academics, students and practitioners in health and social care, counselling, and psychology with an interest in loss and bereavement.

Family caregiving affects millions of Americans every day, in all walks of life. At least 17.7 million individuals in the United States are caregivers of an older adult with a health or functional limitation. The nation's family caregivers provide the lion's share of long-term care for our older adult population. They are also central to older adults' access to and receipt of health care and community-based social services. Yet the need to recognize and support caregivers is among the least appreciated challenges facing the aging U.S. population. Families Caring for an Aging America examines the prevalence and nature of family caregiving of older adults and the available evidence on the effectiveness of programs, supports, and other interventions designed to support family caregivers. This report also assesses and recommends policies to address the needs of family caregivers and to minimize the barriers that they encounter in trying to meet the needs of older adults.

* What are the key features of partnerships between family and professional carers? * How do partnerships change over time? * What is needed to help create the best working partnerships? Forging partnerships between service users, family carers and service providers is a key theme in both the policy and academic literatures. However, what such partnerships mean and how they can be created and sustained while responding to change over time, is far from clear. This book considers how family and professional carers can work together more effectively in order to provide the highest quality of care to people who need support in order to remain in their own homes. It adopts a temporal perspective looking at key transitions in caregiving and suggests the most appropriate types of help at particular points in time. It draws on both empirical and theoretical sources emerging from several countries and relating to a number of differing caregiving contexts in order to illustrate the essential elements of 'relationship-centred' care. Partnerships in Family Care will be important reading for all health care students and professionals with an interest in community and home care for the ill, disabled, and elderly.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

How does it feel when someone you love develops dementia? How do you cope with the shock, the stress and the grief? Can you be sure that you and your family will receive the support you need? In Telling Tales About Dementia, thirty carers from different backgrounds and in different circumstances share their experiences of caring for a parent, partner or friend with dementia. They speak from the heart about love and loss: 'I still find it hard to believe that Alzheimer's has happened to us,' writes one contributor, 'as if we were sent the wrong script.' The stories told here vividly reflect the tragedy of dementia, the gravity of loss, and instances of unsatisfactory diagnosis, treatment and care. But they contain hope and optimism too: clear indications that the quality of people's lives can be enhanced by sensitive support services, by improved understanding of the impact of dementia, by recognising the importance of valuing us all as human beings, and by embracing and sustaining the connections between us. This unique collection of personal accounts will be an engaging read for anyone affected by dementia in a personal or professional context, including relatives of people with dementia, social workers, medical practitioners and care staff.