Understanding Dementia

Richard Cheston is a Research Fellow at the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath and a consultant clinical psychologist in the Avon and Western Wiltshire Mental Health Care Trust. Michael Bender is a consultant clinical psychologist and Head of Psychological Services to Older Adults in Plymouth Community Services NHS Trust.

• Part 1: Contemporary Attitudes. 1. The creation and re-creation of Alzheimers disease. 2. The present formulation of dementia. 3. The implications of the organic model. 4. The limitations of the organic model. 5. Therapeutic disdain - therapy, therapists and people with dementia. Part 2: Constructing a Psychological Model of Dementia. 6. Introducing the person-focused approach: what is it like to be a person diagnosed as having dementia? 7. The person in context: the role of psychological and social factors in dementia. 8. A model of the mind in dementia and of levels of severity. 9. The emotional world of dementia sufferers. 10. Managing the process of loss. Part 3: Applying the Person-Focused Approach to Psychological Interventions and Services for People with Dementia. 11. Psychological interventions: An introduction and basic principles. 12. The assessment of people who may have dementia. 13. Therapeutic interventions: Increasing emotional security. 14. Identity work: holding on to who we are. 15. Changing systems of service delivery. Part 4: Looking to Our Future. 16. Obstacles to change. 17. Producing change: A restless farewell. References. Index.

Understanding Dementia: The Man with the Worried Eyes is an ambitious undertaking which the authors have pulled off with considerable success. Their aim is to consider dementia comprehensively and to give the reader the tools to become independently critical of what they have been told about dementia... The focus here is on dementia as a process that erodes an individual's sense of identity and security, affecting their ability to process information - to think and to respond, rather than solely to remember... There are lots of inspiring examples from practice, both the authors' own work and others'... This book provides a thorough look at all the stages of the training process, and is a good checklist of the complex variety of tasks and skills involved... Understanding Dementia could be used as a textbook. It is clearly argued and logically set out with useful summaries at the end of each chapter.