Navigating Life with Dementia

Brain and Life Books

by James M. Noble

Caregiving for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease or dementia is hard but with this book, you and your family will successfully face the challenges that these diseases present.

Dementia is a very common neurological disease of aging affecting millions of people in complex ways. There are multiple forms of the dementia, including Alzheimer's Disease, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and vascular dementia, among others, and many share features of slowly progressive and profound changes affecting memory, thinking, behavior, and personality. The disease often introduces personal and even financial strains, which can be at times hard to understand. Unfortunately, most forms of dementia have no definitive treatments to prevent, slow, or stop the progression, but there is a concerted effort in the scientific community to change this. There is a consistent hope that there will soon be a new era of scientific breakthroughs impacting dementia. Now, and in the future, patients with dementia, their friends, and their families need resources to successfully face the challenges introduced by the disease.

Navigating Life with Dementia is designed as a handbook including tools to manage both day-to-day issues and to anticipate the long-term impact of the disease for dementia patients as well as their friends and families. This volume will help families in all stages of dementia care, beginning with the earliest hints of cognitive problems through advanced stages. In easily understood language, the book thoroughly covers the complexities of the dementias, the establishment of a diagnosis, what to expect throughout the stages of disease, and how to best anticipate and manage common problems.

Genres: Psychology

304 pages, Paperback

Published June 15, 2022

Reviews

[magda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo, naprawdę bardzo dobra książka dla każdego, kto z tematem demencji chce się oswoić i jednocześnie nie zwariować.
Napisana bardzo przystępnym językiem, zawiera masę informacji przydatnych dla osób, których problem demencji dotyka mniej czy bardziej bezpośrednio – począwszy od charakterystyki poszczególnych form otępienia, poprzez dostępne metody leczenia i usprawniania życia chorych w przebiegu choroby, aż po dyskusję na temat regulacji prawnych w końcowych etapach choroby (a więc i życia) pacjentów.
Cztery gwiazdki zamiast pięciu, bo książka jest napisana typowo pod realia USA – dane dotyczące dostępnych terapii, form opieki (takich jak hospicja, domy opieki) czy rozwiązań prawnych odnoszą się stricte do amerykańskiego prawodawstwa czy regulacji określonych przez FDA.

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and easy to read and understand. Also, organized in a way that it’s possible to read just the applicable/relevant chapters.

[Tim O'neill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book anyöne necessarily wants to find themselves in a position to be reading, but given that, as Noble tells us, many people are in such a position, it’s helpful that such a book exists. As others point out, the book is well organized with useful redundancies, especially for those of us whose neurosciënce knowledge is limited to whatever’s in an Intro to Linguistics textbook (and that aphasia knowledge did come in handy!). Because I wanted this book to “count” for Goodreads, I did read all the sections, even those that weren’t relevant to my family’s situätion, but I think that did more fully support what I was learning in the relevant sections.

Noble says this book is for caregivers (like me!) and for those who’ve received a diägnosis (which, given the genetics involved, could be me some day as well), and it’s definitely hard for me to imagine staring down the future laid out by Noble, tho he is in-the-moment optimistic thruöut, which I appreciäted.

My one issue is that, while some of the advice was actionable, I feel like it needed about twice as much day-to-day advice. It’s a great starting point for day-to-day happenings, but I found myself reading other articles elsewhere, inspyred by Noble’s hints, to supplement this practical advice. Now, tho, I wonder what I would cut out to make room for it? I certainly appreciäted the full neurosciëntific breakdown, and I do think the length was appropriäte to the task, so I may need to consider that further.

As I’ve remarked with some other non-fiction works, the “I really liked it” translation that Goodreads provides for a ⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating dœsn’t quite apply here, but that is the extent to which the book did what I needed it to. You might get a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ experiënce out of it if you, as I did, seek out the practical, day-to-day advice elsewhere.

[Anne Ottomanelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of ANY of the dementia caregiver books out there. Easy to follow, understand, well-written, extremely thorough. I highly recommend this for all.

[Julia Dwyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

There wasn’t anything in this book that I didn’t already know. Not that that really has anything to do with whether the book is good or not. But with there being all this information already easily available online or in other books, why was this published in 2022? It just kinda seems redundant?

Regardless, this book doesn’t really have anything to do with navigating life with dementia. It’s more like navigating life next to someone with dementia.

It starts as a textbook giving a pretty thorough description of each diagnosis. The second half is more about managing behaviors, communication, and medication. It doesn’t go through everything, but it has a lot of useful information.

So as a caregiver guide, it’s fine. The title made me believe I was reading a book more centered to someone with dementia.

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of interesting tidbits about dementia....etc. I think there is a lot more we need to learn about the brain, so perhaps we'll get a stranglehold on dementia and similar diseases someday.

[Denise Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comprehensive book but also offers easy to follow and understand bullet points on key issues

[Walkandread · Rating 5 out of 5]

Logical comprehensive organization. Enough mechanistic explanations. Actionable advice.