How to Live Well with Dementia: Expert Help for People Living with Dementia and Their Family, Friends, and Carer Partners

How to Live Well with Dementia: Expert Help for People Living with Dementia and their Family, Friends, and Care Partners provides an array of essential guidance about the different aspects of dementia for all whose lives are touched by dementia, including people living with dementia and their support network.

Following an effective Q&A framework, this book offers valuable, easy-to-navigate guidance on the burning questions that those living with a dementia diagnosis and their carer/supporter need to know. Questions addressed include ’How can I adjust to life with the diagnosis?’, ’How can I plan for the future?’, and ’How can we support our loved ones living with dementia?’. It provides expert explanations about changes in the brain and the various causes and types of dementia, as well as support on how to adjust to living with a diagnosis. It also offers practical information about care planning and advanced directives, maintaining health and social connections, accessing appropriate community care, and supporting medical and hospital care. It concludes with important self-care information for care/support partners.

Written jointly by academic experts and experts through lived experience, this book is indispensable for people living with dementia, care partners, and anyone wanting to understand more about the condition, as well as health and social care professionals and students of health and social care.

Anthea Innes moved from Scotland in 2022 to Canada where she is a Professor Health, Aging and Society, Gilbrea Research Chair in Aging and Mental Health and Director of the Gilbrea Centre for Studies in Aging at McMaster University. She has conducted social research on dementia for nearly 30 years.

Megan E. O’Connell is a Registered Doctoral Psychologist and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan, Canada. She leads the clinical neuropsychology team in the diagnostic the Rural and Remote Memory Clinic, provides care partner support, and researches issues related to dementia care.

Carmel Geoghegan is based in Ireland and after being a carer for her mother living with dementia has remained an advocate and supporter of campaigns that keep the spotlight on Dementia and End of Life Care. Her priority is the development of practice and policies that respect people living with a dementia diagnosis, particularly in rural areas.

Phyllis Fehr is a person living with dementia in Canada. She is currently a patient advisory to the Alzheimer’s Board for Canada. She provides local leadership to the Empowering Dementia-friendly Communities Hamilton, Haldimand