What Is Dementia

More than four million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s, and as many as fifteen million are caregivers. Mary Cail offers a new and engaging guide to relationships with both patients and caregivers. Her book gives unique ideas: how to have a supper club for a caregiver, produce an entertaining video for a person with advanced dementia, help a friend in the early stage at a restaurant, write a comforting letter. But the book goes beyond practical suggestions and tells, more importantly, how to respond as a friend’s cognitive ability, time commitments or stressors change. “Do” and “don’t” conversation guides give examples of new situations. Memorable, true stories—from Velma, the daughter of an Arkansas sharecropper, to Willa, a physician once nominated for Surgeon General—illustrate the challenges of each stage. The book prepares a reader who is not directly affected by Alzheimer’s disease to stay actively involved in the lives of the patients and caregivers who are. Written with the time and interests of the audience in mind, it is quickly readable, covers all stages, and applies equally to relationships with both the patient and the caregiver.