Life with Big Al (Early Alzheimer's)


Book Description

Why settle for plain floors when you can turn them into decorative accents that add as much to the beauty of your home as the furniture or window treatments? Products such as acrylic varnishes that resist yellowing make it easier than ever to achieve great results using a variety of time-honoured techniques.




Life With Big Al (Early Alzheimer's) a Caregivers Diary


Book Description

Life With BIG AL is a story about how one family copes having their husband, father, and grandfather diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 52. It is a story of struggle, faith, laughter, sadness, joy, and above all, much love. Craig was a bright, energetic, very athletic individual who had always taken perfect care of his body. He ran 10-15 miles per day, ran a small retail specialty store by himself, and took care of his wife recovering from cancer and kidney failure. It was because of all the things he did that no one paid too much attention when he did something out of the ordinary; he had so much stress in his life. It wasn't until his wife, Judy, got well and studied that she knew. And, life With BIG AL began...




A Journal for Family Caregivers


Book Description

This is Book three in The Family Caregiver’s Series. The books in this series are designed to support you, the family caregiver, which in turn will help you be supportive to your loved one. While caregiving is love in action, it is also a demanding job. One that requires a lot of self-care to keep us going. This journal is a place for thoughts and feelings, but also a place to jot down ideas and plans to make the job easier.




Lifting Our Voices


Book Description

Lifting Our Voices is the only book to explore the dual roles of professional social workers who are also family caregivers and the only collection on caregiving in which the majority of contributors are African American. After discussing the relevant literature, Lifting Our Voices vividly and sensitively presents the caregiving experiences of ten professional social workers. Using professional and theoretical knowledge and skills, each contributor draws implications for various levels of social work and human service interventions. These poignant descriptions and analyses recount both the frustrations and barriers of negotiating social service agencies and other institutions and the joys and triumphs of family caregiving. Lifting Our Voices frankly discusses how a professional education either prepares or fails to equip an individual with the skills for successful intervention on behalf of a loved one. Contributors hail from rich and varied backgrounds, revealing the importance of age, ethnicity, gender, marital status, and gerontological expertise in the practice of family caregiving. These essays explore situations rarely reported on in the literature, such as caregivers and care recipients who represent the lifespan from preschool to retirement. Lifting Our Voices graphically describes types of caregiving that are seldom discussed, including simultaneous caregiving to multiple family members and reciprocal and sequential caregiving, thus broadening and refining the very concepts of "caregiving" and "family."




Sustenance and Hope for Caregivers of Elderly Parents


Book Description

This volume provides a practical exploration of one of today's most complex and challenging issues—the care of an elderly parent—with an innovative approach that emphasizes how rewarding the caregiver/care-receiver relationship can be. For anyone facing this often overwhelming situation, Sustenance and Hope for Caregivers of Elderly Parents: Bread of Angels offers a wealth of insights from experienced caregivers, extraordinary personal stories, and most importantly, reassurance and support. It is a refreshing new vision of the positive potential for caregiving and the rewards that come with evolving relationships between adult children and their parents. Gloria G. Barsamian's remarkably perceptive new volume dispels the myth that caretaking is a thankless burden. Like no other work, it captures the emotions of today's millions of caregivers, as well as care-receivers, spouses, and grandchildren. A longtime social worker, Barsamian shows how old ways of thinking about caregiving can be replaced with new, healthier possibilities that enrich the lives of caregivers and care-receivers.




Psychotherapeutic Support for Family Caregivers of People With Dementia


Book Description

Learn how family caregivers of people with dementia can be supported by psychotherapy Provides step-by-step guidance for face-to-face or remote therapy Illustrated with therapeutic dialogs from real cases Includes downloadable intervention handouts This handbook addresses the extremely challenging situation that family caregivers of people with dementia face and is informed by the use of evidence-based psychotherapeutic strategies to support them. The book guides readers step-by step through effective therapeutic strategies, mainly based on cognitive-behavioral therapy, and illustrated with excerpts of dialogs between therapists and family caregivers from real sessions. Different modules address topics such as dealing with challenging behavior, self-care, perfectionism and guilt, as well as changes in the relationship with the ill person, barriers to seeking social and professional support, stress management and emotion regulation, accepting one's own limits, and dealing with institutionalization. These modules can be put together to meet different individuals' needs. Particular emphasis is placed on creating a positive therapeutic alliance, resource activation, and helping caregivers develop the motivation for change. Finally, multiple handouts that can be used in clinical practice are available for download. The intervention is suitable for various settings, including face-to-face therapy or remote forms such as telephone or online therapy. This manual is ideal for clinical psychologists, gerontologists, psychotherapists, social workers, and counsellors working with people with dementia and their families.




Stroke Diaries


Book Description

A woman recounts the horror of waking up paralyzed, unable to call for help. A man has a mini-stroke and refuses to listen to his doctor, only to suffer a disabling stroke soon after. A physician recalls watching a tiny baby in the throws of a stroke, convulsing violently. A survivor rejoices after finally crossing the street before the pedestrian lights change back. Blending such highly personal and moving stories with crystal clear medical commentary based on first-hand clinical experience, Dr. Olajide Williams demystifies this potentially devastating illness and provides a roadmap to recovery. Indeed, Dr. Williams shows that the majority of strokes are not only preventable, but also treatable. Through compelling stories of patients, survivors and caregivers, woven together by easy-to-understand medical explanations, Dr. Williams provides practical tips on preventing strokes with specific lifestyle prescriptions, on recognizing the different forms of strokes, on managing symptoms after stroke, and on overcoming the psychological burden of stroke. He also reviews the new clot-busting treatments, which have dramatically improved the recovery rate of stroke victims. Combining cutting-edge medicine with the gripping stories of patients, survivors, family members, and physicians, Stroke Diaries strikes a blow against the current public health crisis in stroke.




The Emotional Survival Guide for Caregivers


Book Description

Caring for a parent whose health is in decline turns the world upside down. The emotional fallout can be devastating, but it doesn't have to be that way. Empathic guidance from an expert who's been there can help. Through an account of two sisters and their ailing mother--interwoven with no-nonsense advice--The Emotional Survival Guide for Caregivers helps family members navigate tough decisions and make the most of their time together as they care for an aging parent. The author urges readers to be honest about the level of commitment they're able to make and emphasizes the need for clear communication within the family. While acknowledging their guilt, stress, and fatigue, he helps caregivers reaffirm emotional connections worn thin by the routine of daily care. This compassionate book will help families everywhere avoid burnout and preserve bonds during one of life's most difficult passages.




Dementia Diary


Book Description

PAPERBACK & DOWNLOAD EDITIONS---For 15 years, Robert Tell was his widowed Mom's caregiver as her mind and personality disappeared into the fog of dementia. He tells the tale with compassion and humor in this full length, fast moving memoir. His lesson: Caregiver burnout can be helped. If you are watching your loved one vanish into the sinkhole of Alzheimer's Disease (or another dementia), "Dementia Diary" will lift your spirits.




Social Support, Well-being, and Teacher Development


Book Description

This book uses social support as a central theme to provide a sound underpinning for guiding teachers to play more supportive roles in schools. It comprises a series of empirical studies that address the psychological processes involved in feeling supported and providing support, and which demonstrate how students’ and teachers’ well-being can be enhanced through learning and teaching in the classroom. The distinction between teachers who are caring mentors and those who simply impart knowledge has attracted considerable interest among researchers; however, in the twenty-first century education seems to be playing a more restricted role, due to the predominant focus on performance outcomes. This book addresses and identifies teachers’ expanding role in education. It describes various types of support that teachers can offer students, and which serve to enhance a range of learning outcomes. Further, it provides evidence suggesting that teachers’ commitment to learner development is a prerequisite for a satisfying teaching career, and that teachers’ knowledge, skills and ability to provide social support in the classroom form a pathway of professional learning that can take their teaching expertise to a higher level. Lastly, the book offers policymakers suggestions on how to rekindle social support in an increasingly globalised setting in which people are becoming more and more disconnected. Given its multidisciplinary approach, the book is a unique contribution within its subject area, and will be of interest to practitioners in education and beyond.