Main description:

Living with Dementia: A practical guide for families and personal carers provides a sensitive, direct and highly accessible insight into the complexities and challenges that a diagnosis of dementia presents. Contributors represent academics, practicing nurses, aged care professionals and family advocates. Living with Dementia offers evidence-based research, supported by clear learning outcomes and key terms, real-world vignettes and practical strategies to support caregivers, paid and unpaid, whether in the home or in residential care settings.

Practical advice on how to manage everyday activities, including feeding, toileting, bathing and dressing, and how to cope with challenging behaviour is provided. The importance of recognising the needs of the whole person and providing for mental stimulation and spirituality are also addressed. A basic understanding of standard medical approaches is offset by an appreciation of complementary therapies, and the role of communication, care for the dying, as well as self-care, are fundamental to this concise yet far-reaching guide. Whether caring for a loved one, or working within the aged care sector, Living with Dementia will assist you to move beyond the negative perceptions, and enable a meaningful life for the person with dementia, within the limitations of the disease.

Key points: each chapter includes keywords and chapter outcomes; includes practical tips and advice; contains evidence- and research-based information; written in a clear, reader-friendly style for a general market