Dementia Home Care - by Tracy Cram Perkins (Paperback)

About the Book

"Comprehensive A-Z examination of the role of care giver for Alzheimer's/Dementia patients that offers help with making informed decisions about in-home care giving"--

Book Synopsis

Dementia caregivers cope with repetitive questions, mood swings, lost personal space, and live with exhaustion, frustration, and anger. You may not know how to prepare.

Dementia Home Care covers:

• Life hacks like camouflaging doors to prevent wandering, or "mom" bags for life's little emergencies and what to stock in it for road trips
• Distraction Techniques--Nursery Rhymes, warm blankets, food

• Hoarding--Thinning "collections" during sleep periods, removing trash completely from premises, canceling subscriptions, blocking shopping channels
• Information needed by emergency medical personnel--what is needed on a medication list, and list of physical ailments
• Working with your Pharmacist--drug interaction checks
• Memory Aids--memory boards, memory books, flash cards
• Powers of Attorney--Power of Attorney Health Care, Durable Power of Attorney
• Death--Contacting the Credit Bureaus to add a Death Watch when a family member dies, reporting a death to Social Security, obtaining death certificates
• Distinguishing the difference between a hallucination and delusion
• Address the empty nester experience after the loss of a loved one--to a nursing facility or to death

These are a few of the skills and tips covered in Dementia Home Care. While these tools will not stop dementia, they may ease your pain--and these skills can be taught to anyone. Whether you read from cover to cover or are a page-fanner, Dementia Home Care will help you maintain your humor and your emotional connection with your loved one longer.

The purpose of Dementia Home Care is to help you look back with pride and joy.

--Tracy Cram Perkins

Review Quotes

"A comprehensive manual focuses on providing care for an aging relative.

Perkins offers a wide-ranging and detailed guide to caring for aging loved ones, particularly as they develop dementia,

Alzheimer's disease, or other cognitive limitations. Based on both her own years of being a caretaker for aging relatives
and research into the topic, the author describes many aspects of elder care, from making the home a safe place for a
person with diminished cognition to handling the emotional challenges of memory loss. The book also addresses the
impact of caregiving on the caregiver, beginning with a reminder of the therapeutic benefits of laughter ("It will lower your
tension, your blood pressure, loosen your muscles, boost your immune system, and release those wonderful endorphins
which are natural pain killers and mood enhancers--for free, no prescription necessary"). With checklists and templates,
the book guides readers through such practical matters as establishing medical and financial power of attorney,
maintaining a medication list, preparing for emergencies and respite care, and evaluating nursing homes. Perkins
encourages readers to help their loved ones maintain their dignity even when they seem unaware of their circumstances,
with advice on assisting with personal care and providing ways for those with diminished speech skills to communicate
their needs. Although there are frequent doses of humor, the author's tone is never glib, and she treats the needs of both
patients and caregivers with sensitivity. The manual explores difficult topics, like end-of-life planning and the high cost of
residential care, in thoughtful ways while presenting all the necessary information. Other subjects, such as determining
when an elder is no longer capable of driving, managing meltdowns and other behavioral issues, and feeding, are also
covered in depth. The guide is of use to those who are caring for an aging relative at home as well as those who are
overseeing a loved one's treatment in a nursing home. The layout and organization of the manual make it a convenient
reference book as well as a work that readers can peruse cover-to-cover. The volume is solidly written and informative,
based on concrete data and real-world experiences, making it a useful resource for those dealing with the needs of aging

family or friends.

A valuable, sympathetic guide to the highs and lows of elder care."

Kirkus Reviews

Dementia Home Care: How to Prepare Before, During, and After, by Tracy Cram Perkins, offers the lived experience of a caregiver, sharing the experiences that impressed upon her the enormity of the physical, emotional, and psychological task she undertook.

These same experiences made Perkins aware of the dearth of practical resources for the novice embarking on this journey. She hopes to fill that gap with this comprehensive, "user-friendly" guide that goes well beyond the limits of a self-help book, impersonal how-to manual, or clinical tome. From Dementia Home Care, readers will gain new insights into human behavior and how to become an effective caregiver without sacrificing their own well-being.

Perkins' written voice captivates from the beginning. Her first-person accounts of caring for afflicted loved ones are both relatable and authentic. The reader will find themself laughing aloud, or filled with dread, as the author recounts actual experiences that are otherwise hard to imagine happening to oneself.

Perkins' book explores issues that can stymie the well-meaning, ill-equipped caregiver.

Unexpected situations and/or inexplicable behaviors tend to push one to react first and reflect later. Dementia Home Care not only reveals the sublimated emotional reactions which can skew a caregiver's perception-and reactions-but also reaffirms the uniquely human qualities of caregiving that often go untapped and unrecognized.

This amazingly comprehensive book seems to address all questions a reader might have.

It contains sections from the commitment of a caregiver and the realities of hands-on challenges, to what happens when the loved one dies, and everything in between.

Perkins includes chapters dealing with legal nuts and bolts, as well as details that one might not have thought about. From emergency preparedness to closing social media ac-counts to dealing with social security, creditors, and the tax man. She even discusses one's own emotional functioning after their caregiver role has ended.

Chanticleer Book Reviews

"A truly practical book. From my experience,
Dementia Home Care is incredibly thoughtful and very well done."

Barry
Petersen, CBS News Correspondent, author of bestselling Jan's Story