Accepting Alzheimers, Coping in Alzheimers World

Did you ever wonder why most Alzheimer's patients stick like glue to their caregiver? Call out their name when they can't see them? Want to know where you are when they can't see you?

Alzheimer's Disease Tip Communication and Socialization

My mother is the same person I always knew. She is not a different person. Her brain is sick. She is still ticking and she is capable of enjoying most of the things she was doing before Alzheimer's disease....


By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Front Row

For us, communication and socialization go hand in hand. I am not using the clinical definition of socialization here. Instead, I am describing a continuing process that leads to the establishment of norms of behavior and communication in the Alzheimer's disease environment.

I think most Alzheimer's caregivers understand that the Alzheimer's patient can benefit from being in social settings and engaging in communication. Sadly, the exact opposite sometimes occurs as the patient and caregiver fall into the black hole of Alzheimer's disease.



Read Alzheimer's Disease Tip Communication and Socialization

Subscribe to Alzheimer's Front Row
Enter Your Email Address

Communications in Alzheimer's World

The most important part of the equation is understanding that something has to change and that something is you.

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

In order to communicate effectively with someone suffering from Alzheimer's you need to learn an entirely new way to communicate. Sound easy? It isn't.

We all develop certain patterns of communication over the course of our life. This is the way we communicate.

The Validation Breakthrough: Simple Techniques for Communicating with People with Alzheimer's and Dementia

If you live with or care for someone with Alzheimer's or dementia, you should consider reading this book. The Validation Breakthrough will help you understand why Alzheimer's sufferers say what they say and do what they do. This book helps you understand communication that is often difficult to accept and hard to interpret.

You might get the impression from the title that this book is only for professionals -- this is not the case. The validation theory works and it is simple to apply.

The case studies are invaluable and provide you with specific situations that you are sure to encounter.

I am convinced everyone involved with elderly parents suffering from dementia or Alzheimer's will benefit from reading this book.

You will certainly reduce stress by learning these techniques.


The Validation Breakthrough: Simple Techniques for Communicating with People with Alzheimer's Type Dementia

Subscribe to The Alzheimer's Reading Room--via Email

Reviews

By Martine Davis

If you live with or care for someone with Alzheimer's or other age related dementia, you must read this book ! What an eye-opener! For the first time I finally understood why Alzheimer's patient say what they say and do what they do. It all makes so much sense now. This small book reads quickly and is full of examples of real people who have been helped with the author's techniques. It shows you how to handle the blaming, accusing, name-calling and the repetitive motions ... It also explains why the way most of us react to Alzheimer's patients actions actually worsens the situation and can cause them to progress to a more advanced stage of Alzheimer's disease ! This book could extend the relationship between the patient and caregivers and should be MANDATORY reading for all staff working in nursing homes and long-term care facilities !

By J. Summers, CNA (Alaska)

An excellent book for both the professional caregiver and families trying to deal with this sometimes unfathomable disease. Gives practical ideas and techniques for helping people with dementia deal with issues from paranoia and blaming to sadness and helplessness. I have just begun to explore these techniques and am finding they work so well that they should be mandatory training for nurses, PCAs and CNAs. Instead of treating our seniors like they are children we at last have a way to talk to them on an adult level, tap into where they are at, deal with the problem at hand and we all come out better for the experience.


Reviewer: A reader

More and more relevant as we care for aging parents. With a title like this one might think: "Boring" Absolutely not so! Right from the start, the stories of the people are so real and so touching that one of my friends said she was moved to tears. She was so sad not to have known about this way of relating to her father. "It works," she told me. "Validation Breakthrough" shows a new way of relating to people with dementia of Alzheimer's type. This approach is effective in helping the person to clear up unresolved issues in their lives. You do not have to be a professionally trained therapist to use validation. Validation will make the relationship more rewarding for both people. It is not hard to learn and makes wonderful sense. Some readers may want to ask new questions of care facilities (like nursing homes) as the validation approach will keep loved ones from slipping into a vegetative state. It will also make the care much kinder, and more rewarding for the care givers


Popular articles on the Alzheimer's Reading Room

• Dementia and the Eight Types of Dementia
• H1N1 Flu Virus Everything You Need to Know
• Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Patients
• Test Your Memory (TYM) for Alzheimer's or Dementia in Five Minutes
• Dimebon Connection Study
• The Metamorphosis of This Alzheimer's Caregiver (Part One)
• The Mini-Cog Test for Alzheimer's and Dementia
• Worried about Alzheimer's? Five Ways to Protect Yourself
• Is it Really Alzheimer's or Something Else?
• Alzheimer's Wandering Why it Happens and What to Do
• 50 Good Reasons to Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room Now
• World Health Care Spending and Performance Ranking by Country (Table)
• Walmart and this Alzheimer's Caregiver
• Are Alzheimer's Caregivers the Forgotten?
• A Simple Three Minute Test Can Detect the Earliest Stage of Alzheimer's Disease
• Wii a Useful Tool for Alzheimer's Caregivers
• 2009 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures

Bob DeMarco is the editor of the Alzheimer's Reading Room and an Alzheimer's caregiver. The Alzheimer's Reading Room is the number one website on the Internet for news, advice, and insight into Alzheimer's disease. Bob has written more than 950 articles with more than 8,000 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.

Original content Bob DeMarco, Alzheimer's Reading Room