Customer Reviews

A Dignified Life: The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care, A Guide for Family Caregivers

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently finished reading A Dignified Life by Virginia Bell and David Troxel and wish to thank the authors for making available a wonderful book on a difficult subject. It has provided tremendous support in helping me better understand Alzheimer's and especially how to relate to family and friends who have it. Recently my dearest aunt and uncle were diagnosed with this disease and I was unsure how our visits would go: what to say, how to interact with them, and what to do with them. The Best Friends approach offered such practical tips, examples, and guidelines to help with communication and interaction. It made my visits with my aunt and uncle less stressful and more enjoyable for all of us. My aunt still enjoys her sense of humor, so that the section on Friends Laugh Together and Often made a lot of sense. I would recommend this book for anyone dealing with relatives or friends with Alzheimer's disease. Above all else it helps us remember to treat them with dignity as best friends.

Some books about Alzheimer's have just made us feel defeated, but this book has really helped my family. This book has helped us with communication, self-esteem, how to still do things together. We feel so much more supported. This is a hard disease, but this book is helping make day-to-day life a little easier. Give it a try. Everyone in your family will feel more valued.

I am a hospice chaplain and have numerous
patients who have AZ as well as my own 78
yr opld mother.
These suggestions (helped by actual suggested
dialogue) are very good and actually work.
I intuitively created some of the scenarios
with my mom before I read this book, but I have
used some of their suggestions as well and given this
book to my father and other older spouses and
friends who have loved ones with AZ. It is an
incredibly challenging disease that calls for
LOTS of patience and grace...just "go with it"
and you will be blessed with their extraordinary
courage as they learn to cope. My mother knows
something is wrong with her memory but does not
know what to do about it. Treating her with dignity
and respect takes time and thought but the Golden
Rule applies at every moment.

As a professional in the Alzheimer's field, as well as a family caregiver, I have read dozens of books on caring for people with Alzheimer's disease. Though there are many excellent ones (Claudia J. Strauss's "Talking to Alzheimer's" and Bell & Troxel's "The Best Friends' Book of Alzheimer's Activities" are other favorites), this is the first book I most recommend to anyone on the challenging journey of caring for someone with Alzheimer's disease. It is simply superb.

This book was very easy to read and understand and for someone just starting caregiving the book gives some good ideas. I do think though that for more indepth information there are better books out there.

Very good to familiarize yourself as to what is coming w/the disease and how to handle difficult situations as they come up.

Best Friends redefines the role of family "caregivers" as partners rather than supervisors, an approach that gives dignity to the relationship. Reinforced by examples of people with dementia who chose to be identified by their full names and details of their lives, this says fundamentally, "I am a person" not a generic case history.
A Dignified Life provides fun activities for people: real persons in this unusually challenging partnership of Alzheimers or dementia patients and their carers.

Shortly after it had been highly recommended to me by a former Alzheimer's Association executive, I ordered it from Amazon, and read it that the first night it arrived, like a thriller! Compared to reading other books on the topic of Alzheimers, which usually treated both the caregiver and patient as sufferers, threatening a downward spiral, this was a really hopeful and encouraging experience. At my caregiver support group I spoke about its positive and hopeful approach, and as the book passed around, all took note. It should be one of the first "go to" resources in our repertoire.

I have purchased several books on dealing with dememtia but this is the best one yet! It parallels the information I am getting in a Caregivers Class in this area.

I found this book helpful. I especially liked the sections on putting together a "Life Story".
I am a part time caregiver for several Alzheimer patients and took away many ideas from this book.

A Dignified Life: The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care, A Guide for Family Caregivers

This book should be read by anyone caring for someone with dementia. It helped me a lot because I didn't realize what my loved one was going through.
It helps us to know why someone is doing something irrational.
And, also makes us realize the person we used to know isn't there any longer.
Sometimes I felt my loved one was just being stubborn. This caused resentment on my part. It made me realize they are frustrated at losing control.
I had much more patience and understanding after reading it.