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Living well with dementia : the importance of the person and the environment

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CRC Press 2014

Features

  • CPD accredited: helping you to achieve your points effectively for revalidation
  • An evidence-based, thought-provoking overview of  the ever-enlarging field of ‘living well with dementia’
  • Highly practical and unique – assimilating theory and patient -centered practice
  • Covers topics such as communication and living well with dementia, home and ward design, assisted technology, and built environments successfully preparing readers for real-life caring
  • Fully referenced with case studies, tables and charts help to illustrate key points and ensure a strong foundation of knowledge is gained

Summary

This unique guide provides a much needed overview of dementia care. With a strong focus on the importance of patients and families, it explores the multifaceted meaning behind patient wellbeing and its vital significance in the context of national policy. Adopting a positive, evidence-based approach, the book dispels the bleak outlook on dementia management. Its person-centred ideology considers fundamental areas such as independence, leisure and other activities, and end-of-life care – integrating the NICE quality standard where relevant. It also places great emphasis on patient environment including practical home and ward design, the importance of gardens, and sensory considerations. All public and health care professionals will be stimulated by Rahman’s outstanding assimilation of theory and practice. Patients, their families and friends will also find much for inspiration and practical assistance.

The Amazon UK page is here.

Reviews

‘Amazing … A truly unique and multi-faceted contribution. The whole book is infused with passion and the desire to make a difference to those living with dementia…A fantastic resource and user guide covering topics such as communication and living well with dementia, home and ward design, assisted technology, and built environments. Shibley should be congratulated for this unique synthesis of ideas and practice.’
Professor John R Hodges, in his Foreword

‘Outstanding…I am so excited about Shibley’s book. It is written in a language that is easy to read, and the book will appeal to a wide readership. He has tackled many of the big topics ‘head on’, and put the person living with dementia and their families at the centre of his writing. You can tell this book is written by someone who ‘understands’ dementia; someone who has seen its joy, but also felt the pain…Everyone should be allowed to live well with dementia for however long that may be, and, with this book, we can go some way to making this a reality for all.’
Sally-Ann Marciano, in her Foreword

This book was judged the Best Book of the Year by the BMA Awards in 2015 in the health and social care category.

2015 BMA Medical Book Awards programme-1-1

Report from BMA Medical Book Awards 2015

All public and health care professionals, patients, their families and friends

This unique guide provides a much needed overview of dementia care. With a strong focus on the importance of patients and families, it explores the multifaceted meaning behind patient wellbeing and its vital significance in the context of national policy. Adopting a positive, evidence based approach, the book dispels the bleak outlook on dementia management. Its person-centred ideology considers fundamental areas such as independence, leisure and other activities, and end-of-life care – integrating the NICE quality standard where relevant. It also places great emphasis on patient environment including practical home and ward design, the importance of gardens, and sensory considerations. The objective is to examine the number of people in the UK who currently have dementia and the cost that this places on the health care system. In addition to analysing the scale of this condition, it touches on the experiences of a person with dementia and how this effects their family, friends and those caring for them in an effort to prepare those facing this diagnosis. This unique guide provides a much needed overview of dementia care. Offers a highly practical and unique assimilation of theory and patient-centred practice.

“I would recommend this book 100%. It just makes sense to read. This will appeal to so many professionals going to be involved in the care of the elderly. And anyone who is doing research in this field should go through this book too. It brings together so many aspects of dementia care under one setting: an amalgamation of resources and guidelines. This book is targeted at anyone who is interested in public health, end-of-life care, dementia management and anyone in geriatrics really. It is a contemporary evidence-based textbook which brings together the concept of ‘wellbeing’ in the field of dementia care. This book is a really good read for any clinician who deals with elderly patients as it really opens your eyes to all the outside factors which play such a massive role in the care of the patient, such as the wellbeing of the carer, the psychological aspects of care, the public health perspective, economic aspects and so on. It also gives really thorough reference lists for every chapter so that it is very easy to go in to read a chapter and then look up the data to support it. It is an adequately easy read, there are many definitions. The layout of the book makes it easier to look up specific chapters without having to read everything before, but it also reads well if you read the whole book. I think this book would work well for anyone who is writing a dissertation, public health, or anyone who is doing a presentation on this topic as it is a very resourceful and complete book. The book really goes through all its objectives in a very clear and thorough manner. It is about the multifaceted approach to dementia care, and how to maintain this wellbeing of the patient, care changes, as does requirements and expectations as the disease progresses. As clinicians there are many things we can take from this book and apply to daily practice. For example, when a patient is been seen, it would be worthwhile making sure that the carer/family member is also managing as they found that the ‘psychological health of carers of people with dementia was impaired with social interaction and recreation most affected’.

It is also a very good reminder for anyone who already practices well. The thing with dementia care is that, medical textbooks only really cover the types, pathologies, diagnosis and management where, really the contents of the whole of this book comes under a small paragraph as ‘social care/financial care/respite care/end-of-life’. But in reality, it is this whole idea of the wellbeing of the patient and their support network that we are working towards, and it does not stop at diagnosis and sending them away with a few things to take and do. This book opens your eyes how extensive dementia care can be. It is a complete text on the multifaceted approach to wellbeing although order to make it 100% complete, maybe a chapter on the classic dementia signs, symptoms, progression, pathologies, diagnoses, treatments.”

Living better with dementia : good practice and innovation for the future

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Adopting a broad and inclusive approach, Shibley Rahman presents a thorough critical analysis of existing dementia policy, and tackles head-on current and controversial topics at the forefront of public and political debate, such as diagnosis in primary care, access to services for marginalised groups, stigma and discrimination, integrated care, personal health budgets, personalised medicine and the use of GPS tracking. Drawing on a wealth of diverse research, and including voices from all reaches of the globe, he identifies current policy challenges for living well with dementia, and highlights pockets of innovation and good practice to inform practical solutions for living better with dementia in the future.

A unique and cohesive account of where dementia care practice and policy needs to head, and why, and how this can be achieved, this is crucial reading for dementia care professionals, service commissioners, public health officials and policy makers, as well as academics and students in these fields.

Review

Shibley Rahman follows his first brilliant book on dementia with this fascinating publication, containing insight and empathy in equal measure. This book will help readers – health professionals and the public alike – to understand people in their lives with dementia, guiding you through everything you ever wanted to know about dementia and could possibly want to ask. Shibley guides you through the challenges of caring for people and living with dementia. He doesn’t shy away from the topics that are uncomfortable, but he also gives space to examples of good living and practice that leave the reader with hope and positivity. -Jenni Middleton, editor, Nursing Times

I congratulate Shibley on writing a book that brings together so many of the challenges facing people who are living with dementia, their families, and professionals from many different disciplines, and takes them forward in a critically thoughtful way. This is a book that truly points the way to a future where living better is a reality for everyone affected by dementia. -Beth Britton, Freelance Campaigner, Consultant, Writer and Blogger

I commend Shibley for this valuable addition to the current thinking and discussion on what it is to live with dementia. This text builds quite significantly on his original work and continues to challenge professionals on issues of importance for families affected by dementia. I find his frank and open style refreshing, unreserved in his willingness to question both the semantics used in practice and assumptions that are too easily made on what it might be like to live with dementia. -Karen Harrison Dening, Director of Admiral Nursing, Dementia UK

This new book is an immaculately researched guide to living with dementia in England in the 21st century, covering the subject from policy to lived experience, but always with consideration and compassion. There is no better introduction to the challenges and complexities that dementia brings to individuals, families and society. -Geoff Huggins, Director of Health and Social Care Integration, Scottish Government

This book is informative and challenging in equal measure. It not only provides a thorough analysis of the issues currently facing dementia care, but it also offers a refreshing and thoughtful critique of the many challenges. Each chapter carefully combines research evidence, practice issues and policy influences, and contextualises these within the experience of those living with dementia, including their carers.

Whilst this book is complex and thought-provoking – I believe it is a highly welcome counterbalance to current thinking on how to improve the lives of all those who are affected by dementia. It will force the reader to challenge their own thinking about dementia, not just as an illness but as a social construct, and as such I would highly recommend it.

-Rachel Thompson, Professional & Practice Development Lead for Admiral Nursing, Dementia UK

Shibley Rahman follows his first brilliant book on dementia with this fascinating publication, containing insight and empathy in equal measure. This book will help readers – health professionals and the public alike – to understand people in their lives with dementia, guiding you through everything you ever wanted to know about dementia and could possibly want to ask. Shibley guides you through the challenges of caring for people and living with dementia. He doesn’t shy away from the topics that are uncomfortable, but he also gives space to examples of good living and practice that leave the reader with hope and positivity. –Jenni Middleton, editor, Nursing Times

This is a well-written, extensively researched, easy to read and important book for anyone interested or working with dementia.
Rating: Highly recommended.

-Fenella Lemonsky, mental health service user researcher, Mental Health Today

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested or has contact with people living with dementia.

A particular strength of this book is the connection of policy to practice and practical implications. There are a number of examples where good practice can help to inform practical solutions for the future, making this a book that has value and use on many levels. A further asset is the conclusion chapter. This excellent summary draws everything together from the previous chapters under key themes and really helps to pull this book together.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested or has contact with people living with dementia; health and social care professionals, public health workers, service commissioners and researchers and students in this field. This is also a book that would be useful to members of the general public as well.

-Lynne Partington, head of research, Evaluation and Technology, The End of Life Partnership, Cheshire, Nursing Times

The Amazon page is here

Enhancing health and wellbeing in dementia: a person-centred integrated care approach

Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017.

About the book.

Every person living with dementia is entitled to the highest standards of wellbeing and health and social care services. This in-depth, evidence-based book identifies how outstanding quality integrated care might be achieved, whether in residential or home-based settings.

Experienced dementia researcher Dr Shibley Rahman highlights the key contemporary underpinnings of integrated care that are required for wellbeing for living with dementia, including technology, staff performance, leadership, and intelligent regulation of services. The book addresses the major challenges to promoting person-centred care, and tackles difficult conversations around spirituality, sexuality and dying well. The crucial importance of promoting physical and mental health is emphasised. Taking into account recent developments in NICE guidelines and Cochrane reviews for dementia, this book presents an opportunity for all those involved in the provision of care for people with dementia to maintain a focus on delivering the best care possible, and to engage with the wider issues surrounding wellbeing. This book will be especially useful to commissioners following the NHS ‘new models of care’ “vanguards”.

Reviews

This is a complex and difficult journey and Dr Rahman’s book is like having an informed, interested, intelligent and profoundly humane friend by your side on the journey through. This book is a friend that is encyclopaedic in knowledge and who is not afraid to have opinions and to express them. We are part-way along the journey, we have come a long way but we have far to go. This book helps us reflect on where we are and the road we have travelled, all the better to plan and travel the road ahead. (from the foreword by Sube Banerjee, Professor of Dementia, Brighton and Sussex Medical School)

Dr Shibley Rahman sets out what is best practice in language and attitude as well as care and support. He writes with great authority and humility about what people who have dementia, and their loved ones, face and how we could all do a great deal more to help them…This is a wonderful book, for students, health professionals, researchers, policy makers, politicians, families, and for people who may be in the early stages of the diseases that cause dementia. This is a book that challenges but also gives hope. Which I think is the greatest gift of all. (from the foreword by Lisa Rodrigues CBE, writer, coach and mental health campaigner)

As a nurse, specialising in the care of people with dementia, and those who care for and support them, this will be a ‘go to’ text; for reference and for revisiting important topics relating to practice…This book is an important milestone in the Dementia Care literature as it provides information to help us answer the difficult questions we face as professionals helping to support people and families. (from the Afterword by Lucy Frost, Dementia Lead (Nurse Consultant))

The third of Rahman’s books on issues relating to dementia. Another must-read text that discusses the many and varied elements of what is required to enhance the lives and wellbeing of people with dementia. I particularly like his style of telling us what we can expect to learn from each section and suggestions for further reading. This, as well as the first two books from the author, is an essential read for all health and social care students in gaining an overview of caring in dementia (Dr Karen Harrison Dening, Head of Research & Evaluation, Dementia UK)

Shibley Rahman’s last book in his trilogy on dementia represents a comprehensive and thought provoking tour de force through the subject matter – great reading for any health and social care professional, academic and interested lay person. Here is a perspective from an author who in himself integrates academic qualifications in medicine, law and management with a lived experience of disability. A unique read! (Reinhard Guss, Chair, Faculty of the Psychology of Older People)

Practitioners, family carers and people with dementia looking for a comprehensive resource about dementia need look no further. Few books combine detailed explanations about clinical aspects of dementia with policy analysis and yet remain so centred on people’s individual experiences. This is an important resource for anyone who wants to understand more about providing better dementia support. (Jo Moriarty, Senior Research Fellow, King’s College London)

An absolute gem of a book. Through his career, Shibley Rahman has been sequentially academic neurologist, service user, family carer and blogging activist. His learning and wisdom have been distilled into a highly readable, comprehensively referenced and bang up-to-date companion for anyone who needs to learn and understand about people with dementia and what can be done to help them, their families and professional carers to get the very best out of life. (Robert Howard, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, University College London)

There can be no doubt that Enhancing Health and Wellbeing in Dementia should be essential reading for anyone with an interest in improving the lives, and rights, of people living with dementia. It is an important book which is both comprehensive and practical – no easy matter to achieve! His encyclopaedic span concludes appropriately with the primacy of person-centred approaches, the importance of dignity, quality and leadership – yes, yes, yes! (Des Kelly OBE, Chair, The Centre for Policy on Ageing)

Shibley’s voice has emerged as an important one to take notice of within dementia care. His ability to draw together a huge range of knowledge from many different spheres of research, practice and policy and to use it to light our way rather than confuse us further is unique. (Prof Dawn Brooker, Director of the Association for Dementia Studies at the Worcester University, UK)

This important book continues our journey of what it means to see the person beyond their diagnosis of dementia, with a fresh focus on freedom, dignity and human rights. Dr Shibley challenges the idea that nothing can be done to improve dementia care. He brings practical thinking around how we can move towards truly integrated, person-centred ways of working – making a timely and valuable contribution to our collective understanding. (Dr Helen Sanderson, author of Person-Centred Thinking with Older People)

Great book on integrated, person-centred dementia care. Clearly identifies issues often overlooked: importance of relationships in delivering good care; pivotal role of care homes in caring for people with dementia; and value of addressing staff needs so they can be in good relationship with others. It’s not rocket science! (Julienne Meyer CBE, PhD, RN, RNT, Professor of Nursing: Care for Older People City, University of London, Executive Director, My Home Life programme)

 

Next year, Jessica Kingsley Publishers will publish on January 21st 2018 a book by me (co-authored Prof Rob Howard), entitled “Essentials of dementia: dementia awareness for practitioners and professionals”.

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