Customer Reviews

Alzheimer's - Finding the Words: A Communication Guide for Those Who Care

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I may have read too many books on Alzheimer's but this book was not as encouraging or as informative and many of the others I have read.

This book will probably be helpful to me later, but because it deals more with patients in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease, it's not helpful in my situation. Perhaps the problem is with the description or title of the book as I couldn't tell the content until I'd bought it. I gave it 3 stars because it is probably good for latter-stage patient care-givers.

I put off reading books on Alzheimer's thinking that my Mother's condition was already depressing enough as it progressed. But I was wrong, I read this book trying to find better ways to act and react with her and it was uplifting to find new keys to her conciousness. She is now in as assited care facility that is wonderful, I see her every day, and have learned new ways to reach her with joy. Thanks Harriet for sharing your pain and knowledge to help others.

This is a wonderful, common-sense book for those dealing with a loved one with Alzheimer's. We found it so helpful and insightful that we ordered additional copies.

Without this book my wife and I would not have survived my Mother in law last few years.

"Finding the words" to communicate with someone who has Alzheimer's is a problem-- especially after many words have lost their meanings to that person. Harriet Hodgson, the daughter of an Alzheimer's patient, has done an excellent job in giving us a guidebook for communicating in the daily struggle all caregivers go through, as she gives us many antidotes from her personal experience with her mother. In this book, we learn about communication at all stages of the disease, the causes of communication problems, and how to "run interference" or "identifying and dealing with the obstacles before they deal with us." We can't fix things; we can't make everything right for the person with Alzheimer's, but we can try to achieve better communication, realizing, as the author says in her epilogue: "It isn't easy for caregivers to find the words they want. Some days we succeed; other days we fall short of our goal. The important thing is that we're trying to improve communication. And that we keep on trying because we care."