The Common Sense Guide to Dementia For Clinicians and Caregivers


Book Description

The Common Sense Guide to Dementia for Clinicians and Caregivers provides an easy-to-read, practical, and thoughtful approach to dementia care. Written by two specialists who have cared for thousands of patients with dementia and their families, this ground-breaking title unifies the perspectives of neurology and psychiatry to meet a variety of caregiver needs. It spotlights many real-world concerns not typically covered in standard textbooks, while simultaneously presenting a more detailed medical perspective than typical caregiver manuals. This handy title offers expert guidance for the clinical management of dementia and compassionate support of patients and families. Designed to enhance the physician-caregiver interaction and liberally illustrated with case examples, The Common Sense Guide espouses general principles of dementia care that apply across the stages and spectrum of this illness, including non-Alzheimer's types of dementia, in addition to Alzheimer's disease. Clinicians, family members, and other caregivers will find this volume useful from the moment that symptoms of dementia emerge. The authors place an emphasis on caring for the caregiver as well as the patient. Essential topics include how to find the right clinician, make the most of a doctor's visit, and avert a crisis - or manage one that can't be avoided. Sometimes difficult considerations, such as driving, financial management, legal matters, long-term placement, and end-of-life care, are faced head-on. Tried, true, and time-saving tips are explained in terms of what works - and what doesn't - with regard to clinical evaluation, medications, behavioral measures, and alternate therapies. Medical, nursing, and allied health care professionals will undoubtedly turn to this unique overview as a vital resource and mainstay of clinical dementia care, as well as a valuable recommendation for family caregivers.







Key Issues in Evolving Dementia Care


Book Description

Focusing on theoretical, policy and practice issues which are predicted to become fundamental priorities in the near future, the contributors to this important book examine how dementia care works around the globe. They explore the theory underpinning dementia care, the applications of this theory in the latest dementia care research and how this research is influencing and shaping practice. The contributors are leading practitioners, policy influencers and researchers who analyse case studies from the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, India, France and Malta with the aim of encouraging a dialogue and exchange of interdisciplinary initiatives and ideas. Their insights into how policy and dementia strategies are developed, and the range of approaches that can be taken in dementia care practice, are a positive step towards ensuring that the needs of people with dementia around the world are met, both now and in the future. This book makes essential reading for practitioners, researchers, policy makers and students in the field of dementia care.




Dementia in Clinical Practice: A Neurological Perspective


Book Description

This expanded, updated third edition summarizes the pragmatic diagnostic accuracy studies of neurological signs and cognitive and non-cognitive screening instruments undertaken in the author’s clinic in the context of day-to-day practice involving patients with cognitive disorders including dementia. A new chapter devoted to comparing and combining instruments is included, and illustrative case studies have been included where relevant. Dementia in Clinical Practice: A Neurological Perspective, Third Edition is a practical resource for medical professionals involved in the assessment and management of patients with dementia and cognitive disorders. It may be of particular interest to neurologists, psychiatrists, geriatricians, primary care practitioners and those working with patients with cognitive impairment in the fields of neuropsychology, psychology, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and nursing.




Practical Strategies in Geriatric Mental Health


Book Description

This book provides practical, up-to-the-minute information and tools for clinicians working with older adults. A roster of expert authors offers the most practical clinical and research insights across the most relevant, frequently encountered diagnostic and treatment problems. Each chapter is organized in a logical, easy-to-follow structure tha




Dementia


Book Description

Dementia is a devastating diagnosis for patients Dementia comes in many forms that can be hard to differentiate. Arriving at an accurate diagnosis without subjecting an already wary patient to unnecessary tests requires clinical acumen. Identifying the correct dementia, and determining a probable prognosis, allows agreement on appropriate management and care with patients and their carers. But how much testing is needed? What do the tests tell you? What management options are available? Dementia provides a progressive approach to help you identify and manage the many forms of this complex and devastating disease. Dr Quinn has assembled a team of expert neurologists and gerontologists to provide the foundation knowledge you need to develop the clinical wisdom for effective dementia care. Dementia clearly explains the diagnosis, investigations and management for Normal pressure hydrocephalus Mild cognitive impairment Alzheimer’s disease Vascular dementia Dementia with Lewy bodies Fronto-temporal dementia Clinical in approach, practical in execution, Dementia helps you diagnose and treat your patients more effectively.




Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia


Book Description

Alzheimer's is swiftly on the rise: it is estimated that every 67 seconds, someone develops the disease. For many, the words "Alzheimer's disease" or "dementia" immediately denote severe mental loss and, perhaps, madness. Indeed, the vast majority of media coverage of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other types of dementia focuses primarily on the losses experienced by people diagnosed and the terrible burden felt by care partners yearning for a "magic bullet" drug cure. Providing an accessible, question-and-answer-format primer on what touches so many lives, and yet so few of us understand, Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia: What Everyone Needs to Know® contributes what is urgently missing from public knowledge: unsparing investigation of their causes and manifestations, and focus on the strengths possessed by people diagnosed. Steven R. Sabat mines a large body of research to convey the genetic and biological aspects of Alzheimer's disease, its clinical history, and, most significantly, to reveal the subjective experience of those with Alzheimer's or dementia. By clarifying the terms surrounding dementia and Alzheimer's, which are two distinct conditions, Sabat corrects dangerous misconceptions that plague our understanding of memory dysfunction and many other significant abilities that people with AD and dementia possess even in the moderate to severe stages. People diagnosed with AD retain awareness, thinking ability, and sense of self; crucially, Sabat demonstrates that there are ways to facilitate communication even when the person with AD has great difficulty finding the words he or she wants to use. From years spent exploring and observing the points of view and experiences of people diagnosed, Sabat strives to inform as well as to remind readers of the respect and empathy owed to those diagnosed and living with dementia. Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia conveys this type of information and more, which, when applied by family and professional caregivers, will help improve the quality of life of those diagnosed as well as of those who provide support and care.




Abnormal Psychology


Book Description

In Abnormal Psychology: Perspectives on Human Behavior and Experience Second Edition, William J. Ray brings together current perspectives concerning the manner in which the human mind, behavior, and experience can be understood. In addition to the traditional psychological literature, this book draws from work in the cognitive and affective neurosciences, epidemiology, ethology, and genetics. Ray's focus is on a unification and integration of the biopsychosocial understandings of human behavior within a broader consideration of human culture and language as it applies to abnormal psychology.




Contented Dementia


Book Description

Dementia is a little understood and currently incurable illness, but much can be done to maximise the quality of life for people with the condition. Contented Dementia - by clinical psychologist and bestselling author Oliver James - outlines a groundbreaking and practical method for managing dementia that will allow both sufferer and carer to maintain the highest possible quality of life, throughout every stage of the illness. A person with dementia will experience random and increasingly frequent memory blanks relating to recent events. Feelings, however, remain intact, as do memories of past events and both can be used in a special way to substitute for more recent information that has been lost. The SPECAL method (Specialized Early Care for Alzheimer's) outlined in this book works by creating links between past memories and the routine activities of daily life in the present. Drawing on real-life examples and user-friendly tried-and-tested methods, Contented Dementia provides essential information and guidance for carers, relatives and professionals.




Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia


Book Description

This book is an up-to-date, comprehensive review of the neuropsychiatry of different types of cognitive impairment by active authorities in the field. There is an emphasis on diagnostic and management issues. Cognitive impairment both with and without criteria for dementia is covered. A critical appraisal of the methodological aspects and limitations of the current research on the neuropsychiatry of cognitive impairment and dementia is included. Unanswered questions and controversies are addressed. Non-pharmacological and pharmacological aspects of management are discussed, to provide robust information on drug dosages, side effects and interaction, in order to enable the reader to manage these patients more safely. Illustrative cases provide real life scenarios that are clinically relevant and engaging to read. Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia is aimed at neurologists, psychiatrists, gerontologists, and general physicians. It will also be of interest to intensive care doctors, psychologists and neuropsychologists, research and specialist nurses, clinical researchers and methodologists.