Products and Resources
Books
My reputation for writing that blends practicality with lightheartedness was first established in the 1990s when I wrote what became an award-winning newsletter on caring for people living with dementia. As I filled that role for my mother, I refused to believe then, and still refuse to believe now, that joy ends with a diagnosis. The very affordable books I wrote years later based on my newsletter advice are still easing the journey of caregivers – many of whom now belong to my daughters’ generation!
Both books provide family and professional caregivers palatable and compassionate advice and answers that can be instantly put to use. Both are available in print, audio, and Kindle formats.
- The main topics covered in Alzheimer’s Basic Caregiving are common forms of dementia, patterns of progression, the logic behind behavioral expressions, and effective communication.
- Its companion book, Activities of Daily Living, covers the daily issues of dressing, bathing, grooming, continence care, nutrition and hydration.
Learn more or place an order here or below:
- Alzheimer’s Basic Caregiving – an ABC Guide – print
- Alzheimer’s Basic Caregiving – an ABC Guide – Kindle
- Alzheimer’s Basic Caregiving – an ABC Guide – audio
- Activities of Daily Living – an ADL Guide to Alzheimer’s Care – print
- Activities of Daily Living – an ADL Guide to Alzheimer’s Care – Kindle
- Activities of Daily Living – an ADL Guide to Alzheimer’s Care – audio
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Booklets
Cheerful Thoughts for Stressful Days is a terrific pick-me-up for down days. It provides keys for tapping into your emotional intelligence with more than a dollop of humor. Sure to make you and others smile. Order the downloadable booklet here for only $3.
Driving and Dementia – Driving and dementia is a challenging issue for nearly all carers at some point, but it is also an issue for many carers of older adults. This $3 downloadable booklet provides practical advice on:
- recognizing when a driver is unsafe
- suggestions for handling the issue of keeping an unsafe person from driving
- how to enlist the help of physicians and others
- an overview of continuing challenges and possible solutions
- additional resources
Improv Wisdom – This downloadable $3 booklet, which takes its name from Patricia Madson’s book, Improv Wisdom, and has her endorsement, adapts the principles of improvisational theatre and applies them to caregiving. Its practical tips will also make you smile. A terrific training resource, too.
Please Note** Your order will be processed through our secure shopping cart with PayPal, you do not need a PayPal account to use this payment system.
Slide show course: Dementia Programming
While aimed at educating activity professionals, this course will also benefit personnel in day care and home health settings as well as family caregivers.
- Part 1 briefly covers delirium, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB), Vascular dementia, and Frontotemporal dementia.
- Part 2 covers normal aging changes + hints for adapting programming for dementia.
- Part 3 covers a variety of types of activities that tend to be adaptable to people living with dementia, IF you are willing to bend the rules, and notes some activities likely to be less successful with many people as their dementia progresses.
- Part 4 covers the many ways you can use Activity Connection content for engaging people living with dementia, some ways to use Wiser Now content, plus game ideas from the Creative Brain Games blog, and a bunch of other resources that have potential for people living with dementia of various types in various stages of progression.
e-Newsletter: Wait Lifters – Uplifting content for every kind of downtime
With the tagline “Uplifting content for every kind of downtime,” the intent to cheer you is obvious; the use of “downtime” is intended to be ambiguous. It can refer to feeling down (or bored or anxious), thus needing an uplift, or it can refer to any place you might be waiting — checkout lines, doctors’ offices, restaurants, airports, even amusement parks. Downtime can also be purposeful relaxation, a chance to make new connections in your brain and new social connections by sharing the uplifting content.
It’s curiosity-satisfying content (about things you didn’t know you were curious about) has covered hen-racing, Swiss cheese baths, chocolate pigs, and so much more. The subscription price for weekly issues with monthly bonuses is just $30/year to individual subscribers. (Corporate rates are somewhat higher.) You need this!