Alzheimer's: A Crash Course for Friends and Relatives

Updated in 2018, this reader-friendly book offers step-by-step instructions for comforting those with Alzheimer's disease and for supporting family members who provide ongoing care. Compelling stories illustrate the challenges of dementia: from Velma, an Arkansas sharecropper's daughter, to Willa, a physician once considered a candidate for Surgeon General, and many more. Cail uses insightful strategies and “do and don't” conversation guides to deliver a realistic message of help and hope in a clear, sympathetic voice. Filled with practical and empowering advice, this book is essential reading for friends and loved ones, as well as concerned professionals and community members.

Mary Cail has spent the past decade bringing her experiences with loss and grief into the study of relationships. Her op-eds and essays about Alzheimer's and caregiving have been published by the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald, the Chicago Tribune, the Huffington Post, Maria Shriver's Architects of Change series and others. For seven years she led patient and caregiver groups for the Alzheimer's Association of Central and Western Virginia. She has spoken at Alzheimer's Association educational seminars, panel discussions and conferences, and she has been a caregiver herself.