The Complete Family Guide to Dementia Everything You Need to Know to Help Your Parent and Yourself

Caring for a parent with dementia presents unique challenges--Mom or Dad so plainly needs assistance, but is confused, sometimes angry, and often resistant to help. How can caregivers get the vital information they need, when they need it? Journalist Thomas Harrison and leading geriatric psychiatrist Brent Forester show that you don’t have to be a medical expert to be a good care provider in this authoritative guide. They explain the basics of dementia and offer effective strategies for coping with the medical, emotional, and financial toll. With the right skills, caregivers can navigate changing family roles, communicate better with the elder with dementia, keep them safe, and manage difficult behaviors. Readers learn to "care smarter, not harder," to help their loved one maintain the best possible quality of life.
 

Thomas F. Harrison is a professional writer and the former editor of a national periodical for attorneys. Based in Massachusetts, he is coauthor of The Complete Family Guide to Dementia and The Complete Family Guide to Addiction.

Brent P. Forester, MD, MSc, is Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is also Medical Director for Behavioral Health Integration at Mass General Brigham, where he leads two system-wide initiatives to enhance clinical care for individuals with dementia while supporting family caregivers. Dr. Forester's award-winning research focuses on developing and testing effective treatments for dementia and mood disorders in older adults.
 

Introduction
I. Understanding Your Parent’s Dementia
1. What Is Dementia? How Is It Different from Just Getting Older?
2. How Can I Know for Sure If My Parent Has Dementia?
3. What Causes Memory Loss: Alzheimer’s Disease and the Many Other Causes
4. What You Can Expect: How the Problem Typically Progresses
5. Can Dementia Be Treated to Make It Less Severe?
II. Understanding Your New Relationship with Your Parent
6. Why Caring for Parents with Dementia Is So Much Harder than Caring for Parents with Other Diseases
7. The Biggest Mistake Family Members Make
8. Your New Relationship with Your Parent
9. Your Relationship with Your Other Parent or Stepparent
10. Taking Care of Yourself Is Not an Afterthought
III. Caring Smarter, Not Harder
11. What It Means to Care Smarter
12. How to Communicate with a Parent with Dementia
13. Avoiding Headaches with Your Parent’s Finances
14. When Is It Okay to Lie to Your Parent?
15. Keeping Your Parent Safe at Home
16. Getting Help When Your Parent Lives at Home or with You
17. How to Take Away the Car Keys
18. What Causes Problem Behaviors
19. How to Reduce Problem Behaviors
20. How to Handle Problem Behaviors When They Occur
21. Responding to Your Other Family Members and Friends
IV. The Later Stages
22. Moving Your Parent to a Care Facility
23. How to Choose a Care Facility
24. How Am I Going to Pay for All This?
25. Your Relationship with Your Parent in a Care Facility
26. Dealing with the End of Life 
Resources
Notes
Index