Dementia Positive

Reading, listening & viewing

pile of books Reading, listening & viewing
This page keeps you up to date with what we are enjoying in the way of books, films, radio broadcasts etc

We are also keen to hear about what you are finding useful and inspiring. Email us so that word gets around!

cover of book Person-Centred Counselling for People With Dementia: Making Sense of Self

Danuta Lipinska 2009
London: Jessica Kingsley



Here we have a book on counselling persons with dementia, and one which does full justice to the subject. Danuta Lipinska has many years’ experience of this work, and her cogent and illuminating text should be on the reading list of all professionals in this area.

Danuta’s philosophy is a marriage of Kitwood’s person-centred approach with the ideas of Carl Rogers, and David Mearns and Brian Thorne from the world of established counselling. The book is very condensed, and at times we might wish for a more expansive approach, but there is no doubting the sensitivity of Danuta’s practice and the many insights contained in these pages.

Naturally we looked for the confirmation of the importance of communication in this process and we found it. Here is an example:

When I can truly focus on meaning and tone of voice and non-verbal behaviour expressed through the face and body, I may have more success in understanding the whole person. This may seem like a given, but there is a heightened sensitivity towards this process when the spoken word may be inconsistent with what is trying to be communicated. It may have a different meaning for the client, and the very process of articulation may be lost so that only a sound or a series of sounds comes out.

Amongst the fascinating observations which might have benefited from further elucidation is the following:

People with dementia tend to reveal configurations of self earlier in the counselling relationship than those who do not have it.

We were very pleased to see due weight being given to silence as an important constituent of communication, and the value of photographs and objects for sensory stimulation. And Danuta does not minimize the aspects of personal challenge in this work:

It engages our stark humanity perhaps more vividly than working with other people. I am face to face with my own vulnerability, my fears and concerns about the possibility that this might be me.

This is one of the most progressive and inspiring books yet written about dementia.

You can find out more about Danuta and her work on her website.















 

cover of 'Love in the Land of Dementia' Love in the Land of Dementia: Finding Hope in the Caregiver's Journey

Deborah Shouse 2007
Kansas City:
The Creativity Connection


We have been searching for a text by a family carer that we can recommend unreservedly, and now we feel we have found one in Love in the Land of Dementia: Finding Hope in the Caregiver’s Journey by Deborah Shouse.

Whilst never denying the down-turns in caring for someone with Alzheimer’s, Deborah is intelligent and sensitive enough to notice all sorts of things which bring situations alive, give people hope, and constitute treasurable epiphanies. It is not a ‘how-to’ book, full of dogmatic assertions about making things better, but realistic and open-minded in approach, a highly literate account with a message of hard-earned positivity.

One of the most extraordinary chapters is entitled ‘Wanted: Another Mother’ in which, finding her own mother wholly wanting in the traditional role since the dementia’s advance, Deborah looks to other women for a substitute maternal figure. But she fails in her search and returns to her mother appreciating her qualities in a fresh spirit:

I sink into my mother’s face like she is a meditation. We smile
at each other for a half-hour, something we have never done
before, something that would be too intense, too personal in
our earlier, rational life together.

Then her eyes gently flutter shut. I feel like I’ve been on a
mystical retreat. I feel a rich sense of renewal and hope.

As I watch my mother fall into slumber, I realise I don’t
really want another mother. I like the softer, less controlled
persona of this mother. I like her silly noises and ready
laughter. I like the fact that she doesn’t know who I am but
smiles at me anyway. I am growing comfortable with her new
unorthodox style of motherhood.

Mom’s eyes are closed; her hands resting by her sides. I kneel
on the floor and rest my head against her legs. I feel her
warmth and the sureness of her breathing. Then I feel her
hand on my head, tugging playfully at my curls, just as she
used to do when I was a little girl. I smile, close my eyes and
rest.


You can order the book on Amazon. You can also order the book from the Heart of America Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, for a tax-deductible donation of $15.00 or more to the Alzheimer’s Association. Email: Kerry Mees

The author and her partner Ron Zoglin give presentations and workshops very widely in the US and abroad. Their website is: The Creativity Connection.


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