Dementia: A Functional Approach to Diagnosis and Management

Person-centered care for persons with dementia has been developed and expanded over the last few decades. Speech-language pathologists are uniquely positioned to understand the striking impact that communication challenges have on persons with dementia and their caregivers, and can lead the charge to improve access to communication and participation. This volume serves as a starting point and reference manual for those who want to provide person-centered and life-enhancing services to persons with dementia, and to inspire the continued generation of quality research to demonstrate the value of cognitive-communication, behavioral, and caregiver interventions. It serves as a call to action for an interprofessional team of healthcare providers across healthcare settings to promote meaningful life engagement in persons with dementia using evidence-based assessment and intervention approaches.

This volume provides background on the evolution of caring for persons with dementia, as well as a description of the diagnostic process for dementia syndromes and the cognitive and communication characteristics of dementias with an emphasis on Alzheimer’s dementia. Its chapters cover the person-centered assessment process for persons with cognitive and communicative disorders of dementias; intervention approaches for the wide variety of cognitive, communicative, eating/swallowing, and behavioral symptoms and consequences of dementia syndromes; reimbursement and documentation issues for various settings in which persons with dementia are seen; and issues and challenges of quality of life and end-of-life care.

Ellen M. Hickey, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is Associate Professor of speech-language pathology at Dalhousie University. Her teaching, practice, and research specialize in quality of life and treatment for persons with neurogenic communication disorders, including the cognitive-communicative disorders caused by dementia syndromes.

Michelle S. Bourgeois, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, ASHA Fellow, is Professor of speech-language pathology at the University of South Florida. She specializes in interventions for persons with dementia and their caregivers. She has published numerous research articles, training manuals and CDs, and books on dementia interventions.