Dementia Positive

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Below are details of some of our major publications. 
Click on the links immediately below for full lists.
jk_publications_march_12.pdf
File Size: 193 kb
File Type: pdf
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​Discovering Dementia
 is a collaboration between John, design researcher Claire Craig, and artist Sophie Standing.
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It is aimed at people recently diagnosed with dementia and is more akin to visual poetry than the usual way information about the condition is given.
     
It is free, and is published by Sheffield Hallam University. There will be an article about it in the May/June issue of The Journal of Dementia Care.
     
For more information about the project please contact Claire Craig: c.craig@shu.ac.uk
ka_publications_march_12.pdf
File Size: 195 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File


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Poetry and Dementia: A Practical Guide
by John Killick (2018: Jessica Kingsley)


​Poetry is an engaging and inclusive activity for older people that can help develop memory, imagination and identity. This book provides guidance on setting up and monitoring poetry projects for people living with dementia in group care homes and individual families. It explains the benefits of creative expression for people with dementia, and shows how to facilitate poetry reading and writing groups in different environments.

This lovely book will be invaluable for anyone who wishes to use poetry as a means of connecting with people with dementia. John Killick gives numerous examples of highly accessible poems, showing how reading them together can spark a lively response from people with dementia, and giving lots of tips to help a session go with a swing.

Most of the book, however, is concerned with the principles and practice of WRITING poetry in collaboration with  people with dementia rather than reading it. Drawing on his own experience and quoting the reflections of others working in the field, Killick skilfully builds the case for poetry as a powerful non-pharmacological intervention which can have a transformative effect on people's lives.

         Lucy Whitman, Journal of Dementia Care

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This book is an attempt to reach a wide audience with a look at communication and relationships, which I regard as key areas in supporting people with dementia. In one sense it is a very personal account, with stories from my twenty years of working with people one to one. 

But I realized that this was not enough, so every one of the nineteen chapters bar one is in two parts, with my own experiences coming first, and quotations from people with dementia, their supporters, and professionals in the second part. This, hopefully, widens the perspective, and complements an approach which demonstrates ideas and attitudes through example rather than exhortation.

I believe the spirit of the book is encapsulated in the quotes on the first page:

You did then what you knew how to do and when you knew better you did better.
MAYA ANGELOU

We receive and we lose, and we must try to achieve gratitude; and with that gratitude to embrace with whole hearts whatever of life that remains after the losses.

ANDRE DUBOIS

I dwell in Possibility.                                                                 EMILY DICKINSON
here to edit.

New book! New book! New book!

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"This book is full of ways to connect with people through fun. There is nothing disrespectful or silly about the words in this book. It is full of compassion and honesty. It will supply you with a springboard to joy."
Professor Dawn Brooker, Director of the Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester.

"Killick's challenge to us in Playfulness and Dementia is simple and powerful - what is wrong with having a good time when you are living with dementia? His many-faceted story is thoroughly convincing - that play, playfulness and laughter are integral to creativity in dementia, to people's wellbeing and ultimately to their human right to experience joy."
John Zeisel, PhD, founder of the I'm Still Here Foundation and author of I'm Still Here: A New Philosophy of Alzheimer's Care. 

Playfulness and Dementia: A Practice Guide is published by Jessica Kingsley.


Communication and the care of 
people with dementia 

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This book tells the story of John’s work with people with dementia and explores the lessons we can learn from it.
 
“… immensely thought-provoking.”
Karen Bryan, Professor of Clinical Practice, Speech & Language Therapist 

 “…combines sophisticated thought and humility, a spiritual dimension and a wholesome earthiness.”
Sally Knocker, Dementia Consultant & Trainer

 “We should be profoundly grateful for this book which can aptly be described as a work of love.”
The Reverend Albert Jewell, formerly Senior Chaplain of MHA (Methodist Homes) Care Group

You can see a bit of our book here.

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We are delighted to announce that John and Claire's
new book is now available. You can find out more about it here, and read a review which is in the August 2012 issue of Ageing & Society here.

Dementia Diary: Poems and Prose
Killick J (2009) London: Hawker

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This book contains both new poems and reflections from John about the process of undertaking this work.
'Killick has an uncanny ability to serve as a conduit for, and voice of, people with dementia. As always we see so much more in people with dementia through his eyes. This new collection is a treat; it is a privilege and a pleasure to read.' -
Professor Murna Downs, Bradford Dementia Group
Available from
Hawker Publications



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"While this is a very serious and well researched investigation into how to care for people with dementia who remain physically active it also manages to be attractive, interesting and accessible to the general reader. The illustrations, poems, anecdotes and case histories are moving, thought provoking and sometimes funny but never negative or depressing. I enjoyed reading this book and that cannot be said about many studies of dementia. I am sure that it will encourage, not only better practice, from all who read it, but also a better understanding of what contributes to a good quality of life for everyone. "
Ann Cheshire, in the newsletter of the London Centre for Dementia Care


Dementia: Walking not wandering is available from Hawker Publications