Customer Reviews

Your Name Is Hughes Hannibal Shanks: A Caregiver's Guide to Alzheimer's (Agendas for Aging)

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I strongly encourage anyone facing any type of involvement with an Alzheimer's patient to read this book. Anyone who knows the author could tell you that she is the type of person who is honest and straightforward. This book is a mirror image of her personality. There are practical solutions to the day to day trials of dealing with an Alzheimer's patient as well as an overwhelming sense of love and acceptance for the entire situation. The book also deals with the importance of support for caregivers. The best thing you can do to support yourself or anyone involved with an Alzheimer's patient is to love them. The second best thing you can do is to educate everyone involved. Start with this book and it will open your eyes and your heart in ways you never thought possible.

I received this book as a gift from a long-time friend about a year after my Father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. This book made me laugh, cry and get angry, but most of all it became a companion during the long, hard care of my Father. Mrs. Shanks gives the patient and caregiver humanity. She includes tips for care and really lets the caregiver know what to expect in dealing with this terrible disease. Of all the books I have read dealing with Alzheimer's this is clearly the best!

For any family going through this heart-wrenching disease with all of it's struggles, this book should be mandatory reading. I have found, as a daughter of an Alzheimer victim, that people are afraid to ask you about your loved one, because they don't know how to react. Lela Shanks is to be admired for her enlightenment of this disease. This book should be handed out to any family upon the diagnosis of Alzheimers.

Reading about Lela Knox Shank's incredible committment, creativity and and joy in caring for her husband as he suffered from Alzheimer's Disease was incredibly inspirational as well as informative. As an occupational therapist I appreciated her ingenius adaptations such as Velcro along the sides of his pants to make undressing easier and understanding of emotional needs as she discovered onging solutions to new challenges. As a writer Ms. Shanks presented as such a loving and sincere person, I asked her to write the foreword to my book: Still Giving Kisses: A Guide to Helping and Enjoying the Alzheimer's Victim You Love. Thank-you Lela, for your book, writing my foreword and being who you are!
Barbara Smith, M.S., OTR/L, author of Still Giving Kisses: A Guide to Helping and Enjoying the Alzheimer's Victim You Love and The Recycling Occupational Therapist
Recommended reading:
Adorable Photographs of Our Baby: Meaningful, Mind Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones, and Involved Professionals

This book helps those of us new to dealing with a family member with Alzheimers's. It helps identify odd behaviors as expected and helps give caregiver tips for dealing with the affected family member.

I especially admire the sections "Twenty Coping Strategies" and "The New Life of the Caregiver and Its Rewards". She is so wise, although she doesn't always acknowledge that other demenitia pateints may not have the same problems. Wish I'd found this book during my husband's illness! I quote it often in my own book, "Voices of Alzheimer's."

This book is about giving care to an AD patient in your home. Even if you do not plan to go that route, there is still an incredible amount of helpful information for anyone dealing with Alzheimers. I have been looking for books with this quality and quantity of information for quite awhile so I was very pleased to find this book.

Lela Shank's account of her coping with her husband's Alzheimer's disease is an intensively personal, yet practical guide for caregivers. I have been screening these books for my father, who is my mother's caregiver, and feel that this is the most useful guide, along with "The 36-hour Day."