Navigating Life with Dementia (Brain and Life Books)

Caregiving for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease or dementia is hard but with this book, you and your family will successfully face the challenges that these diseases present.

Dementia is a very common neurological disease of aging affecting millions of people in complex ways. There are multiple forms of the dementia, including Alzheimer's Disease, Lewy Body Dementia, Frontotemporal Dementia, and vascular dementia, among others, and many share features of slowly progressive and profound changes affecting memory, thinking, behavior, and personality. The disease often introduces personal and even financial strains, which can be at times hard to understand. Unfortunately, most forms of dementia have no definitive treatments to prevent, slow, or stop the progression, but there is a concerted effort in the scientific community to change this. There is a consistent hope that there will soon be a new era of scientific breakthroughs impacting dementia. Now, and in the future, patients with dementia, their friends, and their families need resources to successfully face the challenges introduced by the disease.

Navigating Life with Dementia is designed as a handbook including tools to manage both day-to-day issues and to anticipate the long-term impact of the disease for dementia patients as well as their friends and families. This volume will help families in all stages of dementia care, beginning with the earliest hints of cognitive problems through advanced stages. In easily understood language, the book thoroughly covers the complexities of the dementias, the establishment of a diagnosis, what to expect throughout the stages of disease, and how to best anticipate and manage common problems.

James M. Noble, MD, MS, CPH, FAAN is Associate Professor of Neurology, in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, and the G.H. Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He is a neurologist and epidemiologist specializing in dementia and related cognitive disorders, with a longstanding dedication to sensitively helping patients and caregivers face the challenges brought about by Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Through listening to and working with patients and their families, he brings a decidedly humanistic approach to his clinical work and has been particularly interested in improving the health of potentially under-resourced communities. He is the co-founder of the non-profit organization Arts & Minds, which provides weekly art-centered for experiences dementia patients and their caregivers based in multiple New York City museums, aiming to reduce dementia caregiver stress and burden. He has directed neurological education programs at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he leads NIH-supported research to directly improve the neurological health literacy of communities in New York City and beyond.