Take charge of caregiving: conquer daily challenges, communicate effectively, and transform behavioral changes with 9 actionable steps.
Dementia is a gut-wrenching, life-changing, beyond-devastating diagnosis for your loved one...and for you, who is responsible for becoming their primary caregiver by choice or default.
Suddenly, your fears rise to new heights, and you're confused about what to expect, how to handle the daily challenges, and whether you can improve your loved one's quality of life.
This leaves you wondering whether you can balance primary caregiving with work, personal relationships, and your needs. Let's not forget about your enormous financial fears.
No one prepares you for dementia, but no one prepares your loved one, either. The world has over 55 million dementia patients, which only increases annually. And not a single one of them was prepared.
But with the help of this guide, you can become more familiar with what to expect, how to care for your loved one in a loving and educated way, and ways to embrace the little things and bring joy to your and your loved one's lives.
In this book, here's just a fraction of what you'll discover:
9 steps caregivers need to ensure their loved ones or patients have an improved quality of life while balancing their own mental health and needs
How to deal with the diagnosis that changes everything, and discovering everything you must know about the seven stages of dementia, their symptoms, and early tests
The #1 step caregivers must follow to ensure every document is ready and how to manage the inevitable family feuds that follow
The brain-personality-behavior loop and how to use the DICE model to embrace the changes and help your loved one through each change
The most essential support providers, caregivers, friends, and medical experts your loved one needs during the dementia years with a visual tree
How to prepare an environment to protect your loved one from any harm with a comprehensive to-do list for bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and the outdoors
The secrets to a new form of communication needed in each major stage of dementia and what you should avoid saying to your loved one
A complete guide to the 17 most common medical and mental health complications and how you can address each one at home while knowing when to seek help,
How to manage the 6 most essential daily struggles in dementia, including hygiene, nutrition, wandering off, recreation, and physical activity,
How to be the best caregiver by knowing how to balance work with life, practicing self-care, improving relationships, managing time, and facing the worst-case scenario.
And much more.
Being a full-time caregiver for a loved one or patient requires practical tools, which many books simply don't offer. Fortunately, you now have nine actionable steps with various tools, whatever stage of dementia your loved one may be in.
Don't let your fears and self-doubt make you second-guess your ability to be the best caregiver. Become an informed, thoughtful, and realistic caregiver by following the guidelines laid out in this book.
L.E. Summers is the author of Compassionate Care: Navigating Dementia Together.
Their work, written primarily for caregivers, is focused on caring for loved ones through their old age, with a particular focus on dementia. They're passionate about readers maintaining their own health and quality of life as they care for their loved ones, and provide practical solutions to help them do this.
Now retired, the former I.T. professional began their own caregiving journey when their father passed away. Summers' 85-year-old mother had been suffering from dementia for seven years and needed consistent care. They retired from their role and focused on learning about the disease and taking care of her, which they continued to do for the remainder of her life. Their experience and learning changed their trajectory, and they became passionate about sharing their knowledge and experience with others in order to make a difference to more people.
This launched Summers into a whole new level of research. They realized that the experience of caring for their mother was unique, as is the case for many caregivers, and they widened their research to help more people, accommodating the vast array of experiences encompassed by caregivers.
Summers has two grown children, of whom they are extremely proud. Now able to enjoy the freedom of their retirement, they're looking forward to traveling and spending more time writing. They're passionate about music and loves researching music history - as well as Native American archeology, with which they're fascinated.
