Loving Someone Who Has Dementia

How to Find Hope While Coping with Stress and Grief

By: Pauline Boss PhD

Narrated by: Leslie Howard

Research-based advice for people who care for someone with dementia

Nearly half of US citizens over the age of 85 are suffering from some kind of dementia and require care. Loving Someone Who Has Dementia is a new kind of caregiving book. It's not about the usual techniques, but about how to manage on-going stress and grief. The book is for caregivers, family members, friends, and neighbors, as well as educators and professionals - anyone touched by the epidemic of dementia. Dr. Boss helps caregivers find hope in "ambiguous loss" - having a loved one both here and not here, physically present but psychologically absent.

• Outlines seven guidelines to stay resilient while caring for someone who has dementia
• Discusses the meaning of relationships with individuals who are cognitively impaired and no longer as they used to be
• Offers approaches to understand and cope with the emotional strain of care-giving

Boss' book builds on research and clinical experience, yet the material is presented as a conversation. She shows you a way to embrace, rather than resist the ambiguity in your relationship with someone who has dementia.

©2011 Pauline Boss (P)2019 Tantor

Insightful, profound read!!!!

I liked the readers tone of voice. I felt very comforted and could relate to so much shared here. Good tools to navigate loving someone who has dementia.

Excellent Book for Dementia Caregivers

I found the book very helpful and full of information in dealing with a loved one who has Dementia. It did bring about feelings of what the future may hold for me and my loved one, which made me sad at times. Overall a very good read.

Thoughtful, real time help

This book opened a new way for me to think about dementia, my loved one with dementia, & me as I love someone with dementia. It is also a good book on how to assist caregivers. This book offers words to put to my experience & encouragement to continue loving the person with dementia well.

Loving Someone Who Has Dementia

The author touched on so many of the feelings I have as I go the journey of my husband’s dementia. She offers positive ways of dealing with difficult emotions as I try to find some peace amid my grief.

Finally someone has answered the right question

I just finished this book. It isn't a long one but it took me several days to get through it because there were lots of tears involved. But finally! The book for Caregivers. I have read so many in search for not answers, although in the beginning I needed those. This book provided what we're all looking for. Support! This book will ring true with anyone who is caring for a loved one with dementia. If it doesn't all fit now, it probably will eventually. It isn't about dementia. It's about how it feels to be a caregiver and what to do about it! I believe that a lot of what's in this book can even help people with other types of loss and in life in general.

The author has obviously researched her subject. That subject is the WHY we feel how we do while caring for a person who is not the same, but not gone. Why this pain, guilt, anger, denial, etc. is lingering and what to do about it. "You have to take care of yourself first" bla bla bla. What does that even mean? This book can help you find ways to understand and cope. It provides just enough of the clinical studies to support the method, plus a helping of anecdotal explanation. Very understandable, very legitimate advice. I will keep this where I can find it easily for when the next wave of sorrow comes. It will probably be some new sign helping me know FOR SURE that my husband has this terrible thing, and how profound the change in him is becoming.

Everyone who knows anyone with any sort of lingering illness would find a benefit in reading this book. Family, neighbors, friends, everyone who knows a caregiver or person with dementia should consider this required reading. And then share it with the general population!!

To the author: Thank you for getting it.