Our mother has advanced Alzheimer's disease. Our father had vascular dementia. For a long time, we found it difficult to locate resources that helped to understand the diseases, our parents' experiences, or what we (as their children) could do to support them. We found quite a lot of material that was patronising, overly general, or overly technical.
The following are some of the resources that I have found most helpful to date (in no particular order):
The following are some of the resources that I have found most helpful to date (in no particular order):
- Wendy Mitchell's personal narrative of her experience of early onset Alzheimer's gives an amazing insight into the challenges and strategies that one person established to overcome them.
- There are many variants of dementia, with different causes and patterns of progress. These are well summarised by Dementia Australia.
- Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. This article in Nature Education gives some insight into the specifics of AD.
- Five "pocket" (i.e., brief!) films about aspects of Alzheimer's capture the science in neat little chunks.
- The Dementia UK site gives more insight into managing and living with AD. Follow links from there to find out about other kinds of dementia.
- A personal narrative by a child of someone living with dementia emphasises the value of good care homes and their specialist care.
- As someone loses abilities, it's useful to find products that are specifically designed to support (and bring pleasure to) people with dementia, such as Unforgettable.
- In the UK legal aspects of supporting someone with dementia include setting up legal power of attorney while they still have mental capacity to do so, and possibly applying for attendance allowance to help towards the cost of care when it becomes necessary.
