How to Navigate the Minefield That Is Dementia with Your Loved One

Book excerpt: How to Navigate the Minefield That Is Dementia with Your Loved One: A Guide Born of Experience is a book that I felt called to write. As a physician and one well versed in geriatrics, I thought I knew how to navigate the system to get dementia care for my husband. I was very wrong. Dementia is a worldwide epidemic. At the moment, there is no cure. Our understanding of the disease process is incomplete and appears multifactorial. Everyone knows or loves someone who has been afflicted with it. The very thought of dementia is met with fear and avoidance. Little information is available to the lay public. This book is written for a lay audience. In my view, knowledge is power, and my goal is to empower the general public with basic knowledge of the disease and what steps can be taken to deal with it with confidence. It is written in three parts. Part 1 is a memoir designed to introduce you to Ollie, and I and tell the story of what we experienced in our journey both before and during the dementia years. Part 2 is a scientific literature review, written in lay terms, describing the most common types of dementia and the most up-to-date information on diagnosis, cause, prevention, and treatment. References are provided mostly from 2018 through 2020. The third part is designed to help the caregiver understand where and how to get help for loved ones without destroying themselves both physically and financially. This is a book that will help you if you are already caring for a dementia patient. It may help you even more if you are not yet in that situation, because you will need this information along the way in your life journey.