Navigating the Alzheimer's Journey

Author: Carol Bowlby Sifton BScOTODHPublisher: Health Professions PressPaperback:ISBN 10: 1932529047ISBN 13: 978-1932529043Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease is more stressful than almost any other caregiving role. You may already know firsthand how true this is. With limited treatment options from the medical community, it is truly your care that is the most meaningful treatment for your loved one. Navigating the Alzheimer’s Journey is your best guide to providing that care. Whether the diagnosis is still fresh or you are well into your caregiving journey, the suggestions in this book will smooth your way. Filled with reassurances and practical advice, Navigating the Alzheimer’s Journey gives you the encouragement and tools you need to manage the daily care of someone with dementia in a caring, compassionate, and supportive way. As a longstanding professional Alzheimer’s specialist and a former caregiver herself, Carol Bowlby Sifton knows exactly what information you need to know, including how Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias may affect your loved ones, how to communicate and interact most successfully, and how to manage activities of daily care. Learn why challenging behaviors occur and how to respond to them, how to arrange the environment to support everyday functioning, how to capitalize on remaining abilities, when and how to get help, and what plans to make for future care. You will find your most pressing day-to-day needs met in this comprehensive and informative book. Just like a compass, it will keep you confidently pointed in the right direction at each stage of your caregiving journey. Review "Sifton packs this manual with practical information to inform as well as nurture the overstressed caregiver … sure to become a well-used reference book for many years to come." (Activities, Adaptation, and Aging Reviews 2001-01-01)"The knowledge and wisdom written here provides useful and sound advice for all who seek it." (Journal of Dementia Care Reviews 2001-01-01)"If there is an opportunity for enhancing the life of the Alzheimer’s patient, this book provides the method for so doing." (The Director Reviews 2001-01-01)"a complete, definitive, and thoroughly 'user-friendly' guide to caring for men and women in all degrees of Alzheimer's" (Midwest Book Review Reviews 2001-01-01)"This is an excellent resource for anyone caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease or anyone who wants to understand the caregiving experience. It is much more than a sourcebook or a ‘how-to’… This book is the first that tries to provide a portrait of the 'total caregiving experience.' " (Center for Mental Health and Aging, University of Alabama Reviews 2001-01-01)“This book offers both hope and practical suggestions for navigating one's way along a long and winding road. [It] is so rich with ideas and examples that it should not be read once, shelved and forgotten. It should be kept within easy reach for reference again and again.” (Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging Reviews 2001-01-01)“Carol Bowlby Sifton is a visionary and practical genius when it comes to enhancing the lives of persons with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers. Navigating the Alzheimer’s Journey will appeal to the everyday caregiver who just wants to know what to do and how to do it.” (School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University Reviews 2001-01-01)“Alzheimer’s caregiving is a very rocky road. But with the compass Carol Bowlby Sifton provides, you will always have a strong sense of direction. Few people are as experienced in caregiving as she is. And fewer still write with the insight, wisdom, and grace she brings to this invaluable guide.” (There's Still a Person in There: The Complete Guide to Treating and Coping with Alzheimer's Reviews 2001-01-01) About the Author Carol Bowlby Sifton, B.Sc.O.T., O.D.H., is a former family caregiver, an occupational therapist, a clinical consultant, an educator, and an author who has worked extensively with persons with dementia and their caregivers throughout the continuum of care. She is a dementia consultant to numerous long-term care facilities as well as to Veterans Affairs Canada, working in the homes of persons with dementia and their caregivers. Carol also operates Elderactive Occupational Therapy, which specializes in enhancing the quality of life of persons with dementia. She has presented her highly acclaimed interactive workshops throughout North America. In addition, Carol has served as clinical coordinator and assessor for geriatrics at Victoria General Hospital, site of the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Furthermore, she has lectured at Dalhousie Universityâ??s Medical School and School of Occupational Therapy in Halifax and at Mount Saint Vincentâ??s Universityâ??s Family Studies and Gerontology Department, also in Halifax. Carol is the editor of Alzheimerâ??s Care Quarterly, a peer-reviewed journal focusing on quality dementia care that is readily incorporated into the day-to-day activities of professionals across the continuum of care. In addition to this book, Navigating the Alzheimerâ??s Journey: A Compass for Caregiving, a companion book by Carol specifically guides professionals who care for people with Alzheimerâ??s disease (visit the Health Professions Press website, http://www.healthpropress.com, or call toll-free 888-337-8808, for information). Her earlier book Therapeutic Activities with Persons Disabled by Alzheimerâ??s Disease and Related Disorders (Aspen Publishers, 1993) is recognized as a key resource across North America. While serving as national coordinator for the Health Canada/Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists/Alzheimer Canada Dementia Care at Home Project, she wrote Living at Home with Alzheimerâ??s Disease and Related Dementias (Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, 1998), a resource manual for professionals in community care.