Explaining Alzheimer's And Dementia , livre ebook

Straightforward Publishing - Moore David

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64 pages

English

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What exactly is Alzheimer's disease and dementia? With Alzheimer's and dementia now reckoned to affect thousands in Britain, this is a question that more and more people are needing to ask. The second book in the new Explaining series, Explaining Alzheimer's and Dementia provides a clear and concise introduction to this fascinating and complex subject. Written in accessible, non-specialist language, it provides an ideal introduction for parents, carers, partners and anyone faced with a loved one or client with either of these conditions.

Informations

Publié par	Straightforward Publishing
Date de parution	01 mars 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781847162434
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0450€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

EMERALD PUBLISHING
Explaining Alzheimer’s and Dementia: More than Memories.
David Moore
www.emeraldpublishing.co.uk
Straightforward Guides Brighton BN2 4EG
© David Moore 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electronic or mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holders.
ISBN 9781847162434
Printed by GN Digital Books Essex
Cover design by Straightforward Graphics
Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained within this book is correct at the time of going to press, the author and publisher can take no responsibility for the errors or omissions contained within.
About the Author
David Moore lives in West Sussex with his wife and two daughters.
Currently he is a training and development officer working for the Adults’ Services training department, of West Sussex County Council.
David’s background is in Mental Health, working with People with dementia. He has managed a number of services specifically for people with dementia including one of the first services for younger people in the UK. David worked for Dementia Care Matters Ltd for four years before becoming the chief assessor for EDIs VRQ in dementia care. David has a BSc and MSc in Health Psychology and is a qualified Dementia Care Mapper.
David has written a number of books about living with dementia including:
Guide to dementia care.
Building on strengths.
Making each day count.
Positive dementia care.
Understanding dementia.
Certificate in dementia care.
Dedication
For Kirsty, Daisy and Amber-Marie. I love you all so much. xxx
And
Grandad for the happy times we had together on Barmouth beach.
Acknowledgements
The HOPE of people with experience group including Les and Audrey Pepper, Christine and Willem Vandervalk, Graham Browne, Bob and Marilyn Noble and Jill Vigus.
The dedicated staff and customers of West Sussex County Council Adults’ Services in particular Kirsty Jones, James Hodge, Dawn Budden, Marcus Batterbury, Jane Monday, Debbie Ryan, Allison Anderson and Shelagh Doonan.
Lisa Moulding, Julie Moulding and the staff, clients and relatives at Avon Manor – Worthing, West Sussex.
Simon Kral, Deputy manager of Glebelands Day Centre
Liz Bassett Manger and Shelia Talbot (deputy manager) of Maidenbower day centre.
Andrea Linell. Independent Consultant
Naresh Mapara and the staff and residents at Wykeham House Care Home, Surrey.
David McLaughlan and the staff and residents at Westergate House Care Home, West Sussex.
Julie Foster, Alzheimer’s society – Horsham branch.
Donna Harwood and her staff and clients at Fernbank Care Home, West Sussex.
Pam Grey – Time out for Carers – Guild Care.
Anne Fretwell and Martin Lunn Merevale House, Atherstone, Warwickshire.
David Sheard, Peter Priednieks and Pat Kite of Dementia Care Matters Ltd.
Elayne Dunn, Cognitive Help and Therapy (CHAT) – Horsham.
Thank you for your words and advice that appear throughout this book.
Illustrated by Kirsty Moore
Clipart from www.freeclipartnow.com
Contents
Foreword

Chapter One
Have I had lunch yet?
Chapter Two
Different views about dementia.
Chapter Three
Focus on strengths!
Chapter Four
What is dementia?
Chapter Five
Behaviour: a form of communication.
Chapter Six
Keep listening!
Final Words.

Useful Contacts

Index

Foreword

Since the introduction of the National Dementia Strategy for England in 2009, there seems to have been a increased acknowledgement of the difficulties people living with dementia can experience. However, the focus still seems to be on the disease and the negative image of dementia depicted by many. This book tries to rebalance the reality of living well with dementia.
I often reflect on my visits to see my Step-Grandad, Horace. His eyes would light up when he saw me and a big smile would fill his face. This was how he would always react to seeing me, the only difference now was due to his Alzheimer’s he couldn’t quite remember my name or who I was.
Despite his failing short-term memory there was still a connection between us, an unspoken understanding that being together brought us both happiness.
I’m sure we can all relate to this type of emotional connection. Have you ever met someone for the first time and although you don’t yet know them, have made an instant decision on how they make you feel?
David explains in this book, through his own experience of working with people with dementia and the experiences of people he has met, that it is crucial we focus on the person with dementia as a person who has and still is travelling the journey of life who has the ability to feel emotions and connect with the world around them and ultimately to continue to live a fulfilling life.
Our being is not just based on our brain’s capacity to remember and store information but on our ability to feel emotion, hence the title of this book, “More than memories”.
Kirsty Jones
Older People’s Mental Health Training and Development Team
West Sussex County Council.
Chapter One
“Have I had lunch yet?”

“Have I had lunch yet”? This simple question was one of the first key signs that not all was quite right with my Grandad. It was a question that would change my family’s life forever. Over the coming years he and the rest of my family followed a path that many people in this country have had to take. A journey that incorporates many difficult battles. Facing up to the reality that something is not ‘quite right’, desperately trying to receive a diagnosis and then beginning the difficult job of learning how to live with it, in some cases without much support from the ‘experts’.
I know there were times during my Grandad’s illness that were incredibly hard for him and those who loved him. He felt great frustration at not knowing where his wife was, only to be reduced to tears by well meaning family members who reminded him that she had passed away many years ago.
My Grandad was never told his diagnosis. We all knew and yet when he begged us to tell him what was wrong, we told him it was just part of getting old. The first great difficulty to overcome was moving in with my family. This was incredibly challenging for a man who up until now had always had a ‘quiet life’, to suddenly be faced with trying to fit into the chaos of a busy household. After living with us for two years my Grandad moved into a care home, for all of us it felt as if we had betrayed him. We had promised him time and time again that we would never ‘put him in a home’ and yet here we found ourselves doing exactly that.
Feelings of guilt.
The family’s feelings of guilt were not helped by the fact that we shortly had to move Grandad again as the original choice of care home could not cope with his ‘challenging behaviour’.
Luckily the second care home was amazing. It felt like a ‘home’ rather then a hotel or a hospital. The staff treated my Grandad like ‘Jim’ not just another number or patient. He made good friends with the care staff and the other people with dementia who lived there. They encouraged him to regain lost skills and soon he was walking independently to church, something he had not done for many years.
My Grandad lived at the home for a number of years. We were lucky enough to visit him regularly and even though he would not remember my name he would always greet me with a smile.
Sadly he became ill and had to go into hospital. After only a few days of being in hospital he was given medication to ‘calm him down’. We were told that the medication was needed because my Grandad would not stay in his bed and would walk around the ward.
The nature of the ward meant that the staff were very busy and simply did not have the time to support my Grandad, in the manner I am sure they would have liked to.
Darkest days.
My Grandad’s darkest days were his last. Since his arrival on the ward, in a matter of a few weeks, we witnessed a massive change for the worse in him. I remember sitting there watching him, a withered and tired man who no longer wanted to live.
None of us had expected a ‘happy ending’ but none of us predicted an ending to my Grandad’s life like that, lying in a hospital bed.
I have always questioned was it my Grandad’s dementia that had caused him to decline so rapidly or was it his ‘treatment’ in hospital? I know the staff in the hospital were under terrible pressure and from speaking to people in preparation for this book things don’t seem to have changed.

We have been working faster and faster with fewer staff. Its never been quite this Dickensian.
Staff are being asked to reapply for their own job.
At certain hospitals there are just not enough staff to do the job .
Quotes from hospital staff.
The second care home had shown to me that living with dementia did not have to be the ‘hell’ that so many of us imagine it to be. The home had shown that life with dementia can still be one worth living IF the person with dementia and their family are given the right support, understanding and empathy. It taught me that it is possible to find direction and purpose with time and support from the right people. However my Grandad’s experience in hospital also taught me that if this support is not there then a person’s experience of dementia can be a dark one.
The big D

I have to be honest I didn’t want to know the truth. I would have preferred to hear the doctor say anything....anything but that.
You can understand with the negative attitudes out there why people don’t come out and say they’ve got dementia.
Quotes from Family members
I recently sat with a friend, whose mother had been diagnosed with dementia. She told me that, although deep down she knew that her mum had the illness, she had feared hearing the word dementia.
My friend is not alone. Dementia is probably the condition that more then any of us fear, the news