Home nursing and caring / Advice for caregivers Books

Book SynopsisEvery parent wants the same thing: for their child to enjoy a long and fulfilling life. But what happens when things don't go according to plan? What happens when parents have to become advocates for their child's healthcare needs? Who decides what is in a child's 'best interests'?Stephanie Nimmo faced these questions first-hand when her daughter, Daisy, was diagnosed with a life-limiting condition as a baby. Seen through the lens of Stephanie's own experiences, this sensitive book delves into the complex world of medical ethics and paediatric palliative care. From recognising tipping points to the importance of building relationships with palliative care teams well before crisis, this book explores how medical professionals can better support families throughout their child's care.Interviews with clinicians and snapshots from the lives of patients' families provide insight into the realities of life on both sides of the hospital bed. Compassionate explanations of the conflicting pressures in the hospital system foster understanding and help medical professionals and families work together.Trade ReviewFrom hospital to home, hospice and the courts, Anything For My Child transports the reader into the lives of families touched by the devastation of a terminal diagnosis. Essential reading, whether for professional or personal interest. -- Victoria Butler-Cole KCThere is so much here, so much that will help give other parents a strong sense that they are not alone and ideas about how to find their way through the maze (or obstacle course, or whatever the most appropriate metaphor is). There is also a huge amount for professionals - to give them a better understanding of what parents are going through - what they can do to help them, and some things that they should try to avoid. It is hard (probably impossible) for us to imagine what parents are going through - but there will be many, like myself, who will find that job significantly easier having read your book, who will return to their work (once they have dried their eyes) with new ideas for how to be kind, how to empathise, how to help. The stories of all the people you have spoken to in the last year, all the families, and of course Daisy's stories, are the heart of the book. They speak volumes - bringing the children to life (and back to life). It is beautiful, moving and powerful. -- Prof Dominic Wilkinson, Consultant Neonatologist, Professor of Medical EthicsStephanie Nimmo has written a truly phenomenal book. Anything for My Child is both a lighthouse for any parent caring for a seriously ill child as well as an instruction manual for any healthcare worker who cares for sick children and their families. -- Jared Rubenstein, MD, Pediatric Palliative Care DoctorSteph Nimmo takes us on a journey few parents can ever be prepared for and helps us to understand, with clarity and compassion, why "doing anything" for a much-loved child might also mean letting them go. -- Sarah Barclay, Founder and Director, the Medical Mediation Foundation

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Book SynopsisMainstream educational provision for children on the autistic spectrum can be inadequate or inappropriate, and an increasing number of parents dissatisfied with the education system are looking elsewhere for an approach that will suit their children's needs. In this book parents who have chosen the home education option for their children on the autistic spectrum candidly relate their experiences: how they reached the decision to educate at home, how they set about the task, and their feelings about the issues raised by their actions.Alongside these personal accounts, Home Educating Our Autistic Spectrum Children includes a supplementary chapter on getting started with home education, written by a former advisory teacher for special needs, which offers a wealth of helpful tips and answers frequently voiced questions about teaching materials, curricula and socialisation. A separate chapter on home education and the law provides solid practical advice on legal rights and relations with the education authority.This sympathetic, readable book aims to give parents whose children are not receiving appropriate support at school the confidence to consider home education as a realistic option. The balance between true stories and practical advice ensures that this invaluable book will inspire and inform.Trade ReviewIf you are embarking on the home Education journey, or even thinking about it, we can recommend this book wholeheartedly. -- CommunicationThe diversity of accounts is refreshing, with a wide range of viewpoints and home-educating approaches. There is thought-provoking debate, throughout several chapters, on the advantages and disadvantages of 'labelling' children, and a refreshing account with a twist at the end by 'Mark's Mum' in the chapter entitled Liberated by the Label. More of the issues discussed are not exclusive to autistic spectrum children, and the book deserves much wider readership. Education professionals at all levels would do well to read this book. I would recommend this book to anyone thinking about, or working with, autistic spectrum children whether or not they plan to home-educate. -- Education NowThis is an inspiring and often very moving book which I would recommend to all parents as it covers many core issues about education, parenting and psychology. -- Home Education Advisory ServiceTable of Contents1. Introduction, Terri Dowty. 2. So What's the Problem with School? 3. Square Pegs Don't Fit Round Holes, Andrea Stephenson. 4. Home Truths, Elizabeth Pite. 5. Is This Normal? Jackie Stout. 6. But Will He Ever Speak to Me? Alan Phillips. 7. In the Real World, it's OK to be Different, Grace Carpenter. 8. An Inspiration To Us All, Karen Marsh. 9. Once a Homeschooler, Always a Homeschooler, Lise Pyles. 10. Being Himself, Anne Bedish. 11. The Difficult Child, Rachel Cohen. 12. Three Springs for a Summer, Margaret R. Paton. 13. Liberated by the Label, Mark's Mum. 14. Living Without the Label, Jan Fortune-Wood. 15. What Do I Do Next? Christine Waterman. 16. Home Education and the Law, Ian Dowty. Resources. Recommended Reading.

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Book SynopsisMartha Kennedy Hartnett is the mother of a child with Asperger's Syndrome who made the courageous choice to homeschool. Emerging from the author's personal experience, this book is a step by step account of successful home education.Choosing Home will take you into the homes of Asperger families as they journey from survival of the playground bully to making it work at home. Hartnett embraces those pertinent questions raised by parents: Will I be limiting my child's emotional and social development? How will I know if my teaching is good enough? What if I can't cope? These questions and many more are answered in this touching and insightful narrative.This is a book of hope and encouragement to all parents with an interest in homeschooling.Trade ReviewThis is a very encouraging book for anyone who doubts their ability to home educate a child with Asperger's, or who may be fearful about not being able to cope with the demands from their child 24/7. It is well worth sifting through for the wise insights and practical tips. In addition the author promotes the idea of self care for the weary parent. A nicely balanced, positive book. -- Education OtherwiseChoosing Home will empower parents with its realistic portrayal of the challenges and rewards of homeschooling a child with Aspergers. -- Home Education MagazineTable of ContentsWhat is Asperger's Syndrome? Daniel W. Rosenn and Barbara H. Rosenn. Foreword, Stephen Shore. Preface. 1. Struggling. 2. The Road Home. 3. Moving Forward. 4. Socialization. 5. Making It All Work. 6. Practical Tips. 7. Burnout. 8. Stories and Reflections. Resources.

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Book Synopsis'An invaluable resource for all carers.' Johnnie Walker MBE, joint patron Carers UK

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Book SynopsisLife expectancy is going up. Our parents are increasingly likely to be living into their eighties and nineties. Many find themselves in the position of caring for their parents when they are already retired themselves, or not in good health, or still have children to support financially. What can we do for the best in these situations? Do you feel your parents are a burden? Do they feel that? How do we cope with the huge costs of geriatric care? How do we manage this conflicting tangle of interests? This is a practical book that looks at the range of alternatives and provides realistic solutions. It also recognizes the negative and ambivalent feelings that plague families on all sides. Extreme old age is not easy. We need to help our parents through the difficulties they inevitably face during their final years, and balance those needs with equally pressing ones elsewhere. Dan and Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok, drawing on their own experiences, here provide a succinct overview of the problems and answers for all with elderly parents.Trade ReviewHighly enjoyable, accurate and informative. It is a book anybody interested in the care of the aged ought to have, as a good read, as a reference book or a guide to caring for elderly relatives. Peter Meisner, Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine IF YOU ARE IN YOUR 40s, 50s, or 60s, read this book. IF YOUR PARENTS OR LOVED ONES ARE IN THEIR 60s, 70s, 80s+, read this book. Dan and Lavinia Cohn-Sherbok provide a comprehensive guide to the wondrous and often emotionally chilling world of caring for the elderly. From retirement planning to the verities and varieties of housing for the elderly, from dementia to the difficult world of the elderly and family dynamics, they cover a wide area of subjects. Enhanced with guides, checklists, and possible scenarios, this book answers questions you may not even have considered as yet. As someone who works in the field of geriatrics, at a Continuum of Care Retirement Community, I applaud the thorough, realistic, and wide-ranging approach of this work. Warning: Avoid reading this book if you prefer to be blindsided when it is time for you or your loved ones to seek help because of increasing frailty. Likewise, ignore this work if you prefer to live in a state of denial. For the rest, John Donne was right: this bell tolls for you. Dr. David J. Zucker, Chaplain at Shalom Park Nursing Home, Denver

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Book Synopsis"At 3am I was startled awake by the opening of the stairgate. Leaping out of bed I found Mum, clothes on over her pyjamas, grumbling she was fed up of being moved from pillar to post and was going home."When her mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Marianne Talbot decided she couldn't put her into a care home. Instead, for five years, she looked after her mum in her own home. For nearly three of those years she chronicled for the readers of Saga Magazine Online the fears and frustrations, the love and the laughter, and the tears and the traumas of caring. Now, in this heart warming book, you too can meet Marianne, Mum, and the appalling Fatcat. You will also find plenty of practical tips for caring for someone with dementia and on staying sane whilst doing so, a resources and useful contacts section and Marianne's reflections on caring from a distance, and on when caring comes to an end. Written for anyone, anywhere, who has anything to do with dementia or with caring; in reading it you will know you are not alone.Trade ReviewThis book has all the warmth, humanity and insight that made her Saga blogs such a moving and unmissable read. -- Saga Magazine health editor In this extraordinarily moving diary, one woman tells how the experience of having to care for someone with dementia almost drove her mad, yet made her life richer. Daily Mail This heartwarming, incredibly honest account of dealing with dementia is one to read. The Sun From the moment I read Marianne's first blog, I knew we had something special. Each week I laughed and cried along with her thousands of fans and marvelled at her resilience and wisdom. -- Melody Rousseau, Online Editor Saga Magazine A deeply moving story of their laughter and their pain. Daily Mail The Blog 'Keeping Mum' on the SAGA website is truly wonderful. As I read, I found myself moved to tears by the beautiful articulation and reflection evident in the author's thoughts and feelings. One can really begin to 'feel' the emotional journey and empathise with Marianne and her mother as they face numerous daily challenges. There is currently a paucity of 'real - life stories' in health literature surrounding issues of unpaid caring in the community. A book based on the Blog would make a highly valuable contribution to this topic and help raise awareness. A book would be especially beneficial to healthcare professionals and enabling them to better understand and appreciate the challenging situations encountered by many unpaid carers. -- Andy Richardson Lecturer - Faculty of Health Sciences University of Southampton Valuable suggestions on how to cope with frustrating circumstances and is peppered with useful tips on dealing with a wide variety of situations from incontinence to living wills. Nursing Standard

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Book SynopsisPeople with learning disabilities are at greater risk of physical and psychiatric illness than the population at large, but their health needs are often not adequately supported. This book is a practical guide for those caring for people with learning disabilities living in community settings. It is designed to help the carers to better understand what the service users' health needs may be, how to recognise problems, and how to meet their needs. Chapter topics include physical health issues such as epilepsy, common health problems and diet and well-being; mental health issues such as dementia, depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety; and information related to common issues such as sleep and swallowing problems. The book also includes advice on screening programmes and health checks. Written in an accessible and straightforward style, this book will be an invaluable guide for anyone caring for someone with a learning disability, including social carers, health facilitators, community nurses and family carers.Trade ReviewThis handy volume provides a helpful and practical overview for carers and families alike who are keen to ensure they are meeting the physical and mental health needs of people with learning disabilities. Its accessible and open approach and the inclusion of an invaluable glossary of terms is ideal for those new to the issues but also provides useful material and signposting for those with more experience in the field. -- Steve Carnaby, Consultant Lead Clinical Psychologist with Westminster Learning Disability Partnership and Honorary Lecturer in Learning Disability at Kent University, UKThis helpful and comprehensive guide for carers and health facilitators highlights the key areas to consider in maintaining or improving the health of people with a learning disability. It covers physical and mental health issues, including the client's capacity to consent to treatment. -- Nursing StandardTable of ContentsForeword. Dr Elin Davis, Consultant Psychiatrist, Cornwall, UK. Section 1. The needs of people with learning disability. 1. About this book. 2. An introduction to learning disabilities. 3. Learning disabilities and physical health. 4. Learning disabilities and mental health. 5. Physical and mental health needs of people with Down's Syndrome. 6. Learning disability, health and the law. Section 2. Associated conditions and issues. 7. Epilepsy. 8. Sleep problems. 9. Swallowing problems. 10. Autism. Section 3. Accessing services. 11. Screening programmes. 12. Health checks. 13. When admission to psychiatric care is required. Appendix. Genetic causes of learning disability. Glossary. References.

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Book SynopsisCarers are particularly vulnerable to feeling stressed, worried and worn down by the vast demands that often come with caregiving, be they physical, psychological or emotional. Mindfulness can be enormously beneficial to carers, whether professional or voluntary, as a means of developing greater inner stability, resilience and gaining more control over their thoughts, feelings and emotions. Mindfulness is an evidence-based approach that is proven to help protect against stress, anxiety, depression and burnout.Dr Cheryl Rezek provides an accessible introduction to mindfulness, and explains how simple mindfulness practices and psychological concepts can be used to manage the day-to-day demands of caring effectively, helping caregivers to gain a greater sense of control and maintain a more positive and balanced outlook. The book includes easy-to-use and enjoyable mindfulness exercises, short enough to fit into a busy day, as well as accompanying audio tracks to support and guide the reader through these exercises. An essential read for all those involved in caring for people with acute or long-term health and mental health conditions, disabilities and other support needs, including relatives and other informal carers, adoptive parents and foster carers, as well as professional medical, health and social care staff.Trade ReviewA thorough introduction to how mindfulness can be a lifeline for carers. Providing relevant evidence and opportunities for practice, there is clear progress through the stages I witness clients experience - from debilitating stress to mindful awareness - greatly improving quality of life within challenging circumstances. -- Elizabeth Turp BACP Accredited Counsellor and author of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/ME: Support for Family & FriendsMindfulness for Carers addresses a subject that is both difficult and complex. Who cares for the caregiver? The author wisely answers this questions by suggesting that carers turn inward, and offers a wide variety of practical, easy to follow suggestions for practicing self-care and mindfulness. -- Sandra Scheinbaum, Ph.D., IFMCP, CHC, Director, Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, Inc.For nurses, the value of this book is the opportunity it offers to research the subject further and to explore the effect of caregivers' resilience. Carers who manage their own long-term conditions, stresses and personal demands will also find it useful. -- Nursing Older PeopleTable of ContentsIntroduction. Section 1: Mindfulness - what is it and how can it be of use to me? 1. The hustle and bustle of life. 2. What is mindfulness? 3. Proof that mindfulness helps. 4. No quick fix or magic wand. Section 2: Carer pains and strains. 5. Carers: the forgotten ones. 6. Common carer problems. 7. The stress response. 8. Seeing yourself as a whole. Section 3: How can I break the chain? 9. Living in the present. 10. A reactive mind - stop and choose. 11. Management of distress. 12. Self-care. Section 4: Staying committed brings long-term gains. 13. Setting boundaries. 14. Resistance. 15. The benefits. About the author. References.

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Book SynopsisThe impact of finding out your child is disabled can be wide ranging. The author’s experience as a psychologist and parent of a disabled child informs this book which focuses on what helps, and hinders, parent-carers’ emotional wellbeing. Research shows that mental health, relationships, family life, access to work and leisure activities, as well as finances can all be affected. For many parents the focus of those around them is solely on the child and their own needs become neglected. The author re-focuses attention onto the wellbeing of the parent. This includes acknowledging emotions, connecting with positive others, empowering yourself, regularly engaging in self-care and finding your own sense of meaning and purpose in life. Identifying the myriad of different emotions parents may experience as an understandable reaction to an unexpected situation the book includes quotes from parent carers. Connecting to psychological theories, such as positive re-framing and post-traumatic growth, the book applies these in practical ways to the parent-carer experience. Acknowledging that the journey is neither linear nor simple and transitions such as secondary school, puberty and adulthood require further periods of adjustment. Parents rarely get the time or support to stop and reflect on how they are feeling as they are caught up in the day to day busyness of caring. The difficulty is exacerbated by limited resources and battling for services. Building on the author’s Doctoral research and having supported parent carers in different roles over the last 13 years this book provides a compass to ensure parents know they are not alone.

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Book Synopsis‘The cold reality of my gender was dawning on me. It was motherhood that forced me to understand the timeless horror of our position. The reason women had not written novels or commanded armies or banked or doctored or explored or painted at the same rate as men. The cause was not, as I had been led to believe, that women had been prevented from working. Quite the opposite: We had been doing all of the work, around the clock, for centuries.’ After her first book was published to acclaim, journalist Megan K. Stack got pregnant and quit her job to write. She pictured herself pen in hand while the baby napped, but instead found herself traumatised by a difficult birth and shell-shocked by the start of motherhood. Living abroad provided her with access to affordable domestic labour, and, sure enough, hiring a nanny gave her back the ability to work. At first, Megan thought she had little in common with the women she hired. They were important to her because they made her free. She wanted them to be happy, but she didn’t want to know the details of their lives. That didn’t work for long. When Pooja, an Indian nanny who had been absorbed into the family, disappeared one night with no explanation, Megan was forced to confront the truth: these women were not replaceable, and her life had become inextricably intertwined with theirs. She set off on a journey to find out where they really came from and to understand the global and personal implications of wages paid, services received, and emotional boundaries drawn in the home. As she writes herself: ‘Somebody should investigate. Somebody should write about all of this. But this is my life. If I investigate, I must stand for examination. If I interrogate, I’ll be the one who has to answer.’Trade Review‘Every woman who has experienced the conflicts of motherhood, or is contemplating them, should be grateful for her unflinching addition to the contemporary literature on the subject.’ -- Stephanie Merritt * The Observer *‘Megan Stack is willing to confront hard questions that so many of us flinch from: the relationships between women and the women we hire to take care of our houses and our children, to do the traditional women's work that gives “liberated women” the time to do traditional men's work. Women’s Work is a book of vivid characters, engrossing stories, shrewd insights, and uncomfortable reflections.’ -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, President & CEO of New America, and author of Unfinished Business‘Women’s Work is an incredible follow-up to Megan Stack’s celebrated book of war reportage, Every Man in This Village Is a Liar. It is a fierce and furious and darkly funny book about the costs of motherhood: the psychological costs, the costs in time and energy and spirit, and finally the costs imposed on other women, most of them also mothers, who leave their own children so they can take care of ours. I can’t think of a work that speaks more directly to our age of increasing inequality, starting with housework and child care, the oldest inequalities of all.’ -- Keith Gessen, author of A Terrible Country‘It’s gripping … admirably honest … a clear-eyed microcosm.’ -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * The Oldie *‘Women’s Work hit me where I live, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The discomforting truths Stack reveals about caretaking and labor transcend cultural and national boundaries; this book is relevant to everyone, no matter how or where they live. Stack uses her reporting acumen to illuminate domestic workers' struggles, but also fearlessly reveals the most vulnerable details of her own life in order to make her point. The masterfulness with which she tells these intertwined stories makes this book not just a work of brilliant journalism but a work of art.’ -- Emily Gould, author of Friendship: A Novel and And the Heart Says Whatever.‘A self-critical and heartfelt narrative ... beautifully written, informative, and sometimes harrowing as she recounts the joy, fear, and exhaustion of becoming a mother. What women — and men — can learn from Stack's story is that “women's work”, in all of its complexity and construction, should not be only for women.’ STARRED REVIEW * Kirkus *‘If Karl Ove Knausgaard himself were a woman and had given birth, he might have written a book a little like Women’s Work. Megan Stack’s mastery of language and attention to detail make magic of the most quotidian aspects of life. But the subject matter here is hardly banal. Stack goes beyond her own experience of motherhood to focus on the Chinese and Indian nannies who helped her raise her children at the expense of their own. She brilliantly dissects the contradictions of motherhood by analyzing how motherly love becomes a commodity in this modern, globalized word.’ -- Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea‘Megan Stack obliterates the silence that upholds one of our greatest taboos: our universal reliance on domestic labor that women — women of colour especially — are expected to supply freely or cheaply. With journalistic rigor, Stack centres the complicated lives of women who clean our homes and care for our children, but it’s her willingness to shine a light into the dark, typically untouched corners of her own family, privilege, and ambition that makes this book soar.’ -- Angela Garbes, author of Like a Mother‘Memoirs about motherhood are exceedingly common, but Women’s Work dares to explore the labor arrangements that often make such books possible ... Stack writes sharp, pointed sentences that flash with dark insight ... ruthlessly self-aware [and] fearless.’ -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *‘Stack writes, unflinchingly, about what it was like for her world to shrink and her life to entwine with the lives of her hired help — who left their own kids behind in order to work in her home ... Stack’s writing is sharp and lovely, especially in the first section of the book as she deftly describes her plunge into new motherhood and year-long journey to find herself again.’ -- Erica Pearson * Minneapolis Star Tribune *‘Stack truly becomes aware of the hardships facing the women she employs: alcoholism, domestic violence, poverty. She delves into their stories with searing honesty and self-reflection … Women’s Work is a brave book, an unflinching examination of privilege and the tradeoffs all women make in the name of family.’ -- Amy Scribner * BookPage *‘Stack’s engaging style will have women everywhere nodding in recognition.’ FIVE STARS -- Robyn Douglas * Adelaide Advertiser *‘Stack, who had stints in Jerusalem, Cairo, Moscow and Beijing for the Los Angeles Times, is a natural storyteller with an eye for detail ... This is a painfully honest investigation of what kind of compromises women make by hiring other women to do the grunt work ... Stack confronts a reality that many try not to think about: Who are the women who care for my children and clean my house? ... a double-edged indictment: of those, including Stack, who exploit domestic helpers in their desire to remain relevant in work but also of the men who abdicate responsibility ... In an unflinching way, Stack pulls the curtain back on the truths of women’s lives, especially the domestic part: how women make it work.’ -- Debra Bruno * The Washington Post *‘Stack is admirably honest about her reactions and responses. Her prose is often a joy to read: sharp and full of insight.’ -- Henrietta McKervey * The Irish Times *Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: ‘Every Man in This Village is a Liar is a courageous report from the front lines of the hostilities between the West and the Muslim world. Journalist Megan Stack sheds the customary pretenses of her profession to show us — with blistering eloquence and her own raw nerves laid bare — war’s impact on the non-combatants who bear the brunt of its horrors. You’ll be thinking about this book long after you turn the final page. I hope it finds a wide audience. My congratulations to Ms. Stack.’ * Jon Krakauer, author of Where Men Win Glory *Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: ‘[Stack's] soaring imagery sears itself into the brain, in acute and accurate tales that should never be forgotten by the wider world, and yet always are … Anyone wishing to understand the Middle East need only look into the faces of war that Stack renders with exceptional humanity — the bombers as well as the bureaucrats, the rebels and the refugees, the victors and the victims.’ STARRED REVIEW * Booklist *Praise for Every Man in This Village is a Liar: ‘Every Man in this Village is a Liar is an electrifying book by an extraordinary foreign correspondent. Megan Stack has braved the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, decoded the secrets of Israel and Egypt. She shows us what war and terror have done to humanity in the 21st century. Read it if you have the courage to care about your country, its allies and its enemies.’ * Tim Weiner, author of Legacy of Ashes *

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Book SynopsisRemaining as wise and relevant as it ever was, this updated second edition brings professional care partners a wealth of new advice on how to incorporate the celebrated tenets of Best Friends™ into the everyday care of people with dementia. Using the best qualities of friendship—respect, empathy, support, trust, and humor—you can ensure the highest quality of life for the people in your care, making each day reassuring, enjoyable, and secure.In addition to explaining the basic elements of communication and caregiving Knack that are essential to the Best Friends approach, this revised edition includes all-new chapters on using the life story, planning activities, being successful when behaviors become challenging, getting the best from families and volunteers, and effectively creating and sustaining a Best Friends program.What’s New?The 2nd edition is substantially reorganized for the benefit of professional care partners and it features an all-new final section:Part 1:Introduces the building blocks of the Best Friends™ approach, including the Dementia Bill of Rights, the concept of relationship-centered care, and the core tenets of Best FriendsPart 2:Explains Best Friends in practice in formal care settings, with in-depth chapters on the life story, communication, caregiving Knack, activities, and challenging behavior.Part 3:Discusses how to create and sustain a Best Friends program as well as how to use volunteers and partner with families.Trade Review“An outstanding guide for anyone involved in the care of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. The Best Friends™ method is an innovative, sensitive and unique approach that can greatly improve the quality of life for patients with the most devastating disease known to man.”—William R. Markesbery, M.D., past director, Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky.“Virginia Bell & David Troxel are leaders in the field of aging. Their words will offer caregivers new ideas and new hope as they face the challenge of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.”—Gloria H. Cavanaugh, former President & CEO, American Society on Aging“As a neurologist, I dream about the day that we will find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. Until that time, the Best Friends approach is here to give families practical tools for bringing out the best in persons with Alzheimer’s disease. This is a well-written, insightful book that gives caregivers a life-affirming, practical framework for approaching this difficult disease. I recommend it to my patients and their families.”—Donna Masterman, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor, Neurology UCLA Medical Center, Clinical Core Director of the UCLA Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.[Bell and Troxel] have laid out a way of relating that is immediately accessible to all involved in dementia and a policy and programme for service provision. …Here is an initiative that is easy to understand and is within the immediate capacity of each of us to deliver.”—Journal of Dementia Care (on The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer’s Care).

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Book SynopsisEnjoy the benefits and reduced stress that come from reconnecting people with dementia to lifelong activities they love. Using a strength-based approach, this guide shows step by step how to design meaningful, individualized activities that can be performed by a person with memory loss as independently as possible. Helpful assessment and implementation tools guide your efforts to identify a person’s optimal leisure activities and then tailor them to current skill levels. The resulting activity plans will effectively promote the well-being and self-identity of each person with memory loss. Downloadable resources include: Communication strategies and conversations starters Assessment forms Step-by-step implementation guides Sample activities adapted for early, middle, and late stages of dementia.

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Book SynopsisThis book tells a heartwarming and compelling story of Bob and Jeanette Crick's relationship and their journey together through Jeanette's battle with Alzheimer's.You're about to learn a new language It's a language you already know, but one that you will come to know so much better. It's the language of love. When you take a journey with someone, especially someone close to you, you learn a lot—about them and about yourself as well. This book is about a journey, perhaps a path you are walking as well. The goal of this book is not just to tell a story but rather to give you help, encouragement, insight, and support in your own journey. You will need this.Jeanette and Bob were partners in life for 66 years. The latter years, though filled with challenge and pain, were also some of the most enriching and rewarding one could ever imagine. Journeying With Jeanette will help you embrace:• The power of sacramental cleansing• New depths of forgiveness—of yourself and others• Embracing, even celebrating, imperfection• When your heart is right, there truly is joy in the journey

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Book SynopsisHow do digital technologies shape both how people care for each other and, through that, who they are? With technological innovation is on the rise and increasing migration introducing vast distances between family members--a situation additionally complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements of physical distancing, especially for the most vulnerable – older adults--this is a pertinent question. Through ethnographic fieldwork among families of migrating nurses from Kerala, India, Tanja Ahlin explores how digital technologies shape elder care when adult children and their aging parents live far apart. Coming from a country in which appropriate elder care is closely associated with co-residence, these families tinker with smartphones and social media to establish how care at a distance can and should be done to be considered good. Through the notion of transnational care collectives, Calling Family uncovers the subtle workings of digital technologies on care across countries and continents when being physically together is not feasible. Calling Family provides a better understanding of technological relationality that can only be expected to further intensify in the future.Trade Review"Written with great empathy, Calling Family is an extremely timely and original book that explores how everyday digital technologies have become essential for caring relations across distance and how eldercare within such transnational care collectives is transformed." — Monika Palmberger, coeditor of Care across Distance: Ethnographic Explorations of Aging and Migration "Calling Family innovatively combines the STS theoretical lens with anthropological sensitivity for social context. Through heartfelt storytelling, the reader is transported from the gardens of Kerala to the deserts of Oman, or takes a car ride across London via webcam. The author teases out the intricate influences of technologies on care and highlights the role of affect for transnational care collectives – the global assemblages of people and digital technologies through which families care at a distance."— Loretta Baldassar, coauthor of Families Caring Across Borders: Migrating, Ageing and Transnational Caregiving "Caring is commonly an exercise in sensitive listening and empathic understanding, with particular attention to all that is not said. This book shows how a scholar can manifest care through their research, and thereby appreciate how carers enact care in their daily lives and their creative deployment of digital technologies in facilitating transnational care."— Daniel Miller, coeditor of The Global Smartphone: Beyond a Youth TechnologyTable of ContentsForeword LENORE MANDERSON PART I: MAPPING LANDSCAPES 1 Enacting Care 2 Crafting the Field 3 Struggling with Abandonment PART II: CARING THROUGH TRANSNATIONAL COLLECTIVES 4 Calling Frequently 5 Shifting Duties 6 Doing Health Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix: Note on Methodology Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisHow do digital technologies shape both how people care for each other and, through that, who they are? With technological innovation is on the rise and increasing migration introducing vast distances between family members--a situation additionally complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the requirements of physical distancing, especially for the most vulnerable – older adults--this is a pertinent question. Through ethnographic fieldwork among families of migrating nurses from Kerala, India, Tanja Ahlin explores how digital technologies shape elder care when adult children and their aging parents live far apart. Coming from a country in which appropriate elder care is closely associated with co-residence, these families tinker with smartphones and social media to establish how care at a distance can and should be done to be considered good. Through the notion of transnational care collectives, Calling Family uncovers the subtle workings of digital technologies on care across countries and continents when being physically together is not feasible. Calling Family provides a better understanding of technological relationality that can only be expected to further intensify in the future.Trade Review"Caring is commonly an exercise in sensitive listening and empathic understanding, with particular attention to all that is not said. This book shows how a scholar can manifest care through their research, and thereby appreciate how carers enact care in their daily lives and their creative deployment of digital technologies in facilitating transnational care." -- Daniel Miller * coeditor of The Global Smartphone: Beyond a Youth Technology *"Calling Family innovatively combines the STS theoretical lens with anthropological sensitivity for social context. Through heartfelt storytelling, the reader is transported from the gardens of Kerala to the deserts of Oman, or takes a car ride across London via webcam. The author teases out the intricate influences of technologies on care and highlights the role of affect for transnational care collectives – the global assemblages of people and digital technologies through which families care at a distance." -- Loretta Baldassar * coauthor of Families Caring Across Borders: Migrating, Ageing and Transnational Caregiving *"Written with great empathy, Calling Family is an extremely timely and original book that explores how everyday digital technologies have become essential for caring relations across distance and how eldercare within such transnational care collectives is transformed." -- Monika Palmberger * coeditor of Care across Distance: Ethnographic Explorations of Aging and Migration *Table of Contents Foreword LENORE MANDERSON PART I: MAPPING LANDSCAPES 1 Enacting Care 2 Crafting the Field 3 Struggling with Abandonment PART II: CARING THROUGH TRANSNATIONAL COLLECTIVES 4 Calling Frequently 5 Shifting Duties 6 Doing Health Conclusion Acknowledgments Appendix: Note on Methodology Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisIn 2017, Marvin Böhm's mother was diagnosed with cancer. From then on, he began to capture his private life with a camera - led by his intuition. He had little interest in chronicling her suffering and illness: Böhm's main goal was to 'carry on' and continue into the future. His incessant interaction with the resulting images soon turned into a sort of therapy. Even though his mother appears in the pictures again and again, his attention was drawn especially to familiar settings and objects, friends and commonplace occurrences. Above all, he considered these ordinary situations worthy of being recorded. His reflection on death revealed the small everyday moments that make life worth living. Joined together, these pictures provide a photographic diary: at times, it is difficult to decipher and almost abstract, then again it seems full of emotion and optimism. Owing to their stylised black-and-white contrasts, the photos convey an atmosphere that is deeply moving and oscillates somewhere between drama and gloom. And although they depict very intimate moments, the images express an almost universal experience. Text in English and German.

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Book SynopsisHeal Us O Lord: A Chaplain's Interface With Pain is the memoir of Rabbi Sidney Goldstein, a chaplain who encounters the traumas of life as he visits with those who are in the throes of experiencing them. The book expresses the challenges faced by chaplains in providing support during some of the most crucial and painful times of life without being enveloped by them personally. Rabbi Goldstein offers a source of encouragement and council for those whose lives might crave spirituality but do not know where to turn.Trade Review" Heal Us O Lord speaks about the human condition and what we can do to bring hope, comfort and redemption to those feeling vulnerable, lonely and lost. It is truly an exquisite book." Johnny Solomon, www.facebook.com"A candid and impressively informative memoir, Heal Us O Lord is an extraordinary and unreservedly recommended addition to personal reading lists, as well as synagogue, community, and academic library Contemporary American Biography in general, and Judaic Studies supplemental studies lists in particular." http://www.midwestbookreview.com

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