Understanding Dementia

Understanding Dementia: The Man with the Worried Eyes is an ambitious undertaking which the authors have pulled off with considerable success. Their aim is to consider dementia comprehensively and to give the reader the tools to become independently critical of what they have been told about dementia... The focus here is on dementia as a process that erodes an individual's sense of identity and security, affecting their ability to process information - to think and to respond, rather than solely to remember... There are lots of inspiring examples from practice, both the authors' own work and others'... This book provides a thorough look at all the stages of the training process, and is a good checklist of the complex variety of tasks and skills involved... Understanding Dementia could be used as a textbook. It is clearly argued and logically set out with useful summaries at the end of each chapter. -- Ageing and Society
The authors believe that the key task is to try and understand the world through the eyes of the person with dementia, which is acknowledged as a challenging and often painful process for all concerned. People with dementia are seen as capable of emotional growth and change as long as their environment supports this... This is an excellent book for students of all disciplines and for clinicians, like me, who have been working in the field for some time. It is clearly laid out and divided into sections on contemporary attitudes, constructing a psychological model of dementia, applying a person-focused approach to psychological interventions, and looking to our future. -- Therapy Weekly
This is the best book on dementia that I have ever read. In it two clinical psychologists develop a coherent theory concerning the reactions and management of people with dementia. Put simply their theme is that the neuro-pathological changes within the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease may be the same, but the ways in which people react to their problems are different. The message is focus on the person, not on the disease... Developing their theme of a mind-body partnership, Cheston and Bender rightly draw attention to the work of others, especially Tom Kitwood, in paving the way for their work. Who knows, perhaps their names will one day be on everyone's lips, for the synthesis they make in this book heralds a new dawn. The more I read the more I enjoyed reading it... I can see Cheston and Bender's book playing an important role in establishing the future pattern of education in many fields of medicine, psychology and social work. -- Community Care
The book analyses dementia from the perspective of the person who develops the disease and, using case histories, illustrates the emotional world of dementia sufferers, the feelings and particularly the sense of loss and fear experienced as the disease progresses. They propose new approaches to assessment and therapeutic interventions which, up to now, have rarely been applied in cases of dementia. They suggest changes in service delivery systems to make them more sensitive to dementia service users and their carers including more and better training of staff and service evaluations sensitive to the impact of care from the perspective of service users. Social workers would be comfortable with the values and ethics incorporated in the authors' approach. -- Irish Social Worker
This excellent text aims to provide professionals or interested parties with an understanding of dementia in the context of today's ageing society. Overall this book is well laid out, the language succinct and each chapter informative and easy to read. Evidently the authors have a wealth of knowledge and experience in dealing with people with dementia and their families. The sections of this book range from the very recent history of dementia to all current thinking surrounding this illness. The text addresses societies negative perception of dementia and challenges the medical approach of treatment. Person focused therapy is suggested as the alternative and the text considers and applies this therapy to the dementia sufferer. I would recomemend this book to all interested individuals. -- Journal of Community Nursing
Understanding Dementia has been written for a diverse readership including direct careworkers, planners and policy makers... Its style is direct, accessible and sometimes outspoken. The book is an ambitious one. It presents the first truly psychological model of dementia and sets this, and its service implications, within a historical, social, economic and political context. -- Journal of Dementia Care