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Why Dementia Makes Communication Difficult: A Guide to Better Outcomes [Paperback / softback]

4.22/5 (18 ratings by Goodreads)
  • Format: Paperback / softback, 192 pages, height x width x depth: 228x152x14 mm, weight: 298 g
  • Pub. Date: 19-Aug-2021
  • Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
  • ISBN-10: 1787756068
  • ISBN-13: 9781787756069
  • Paperback / softback
  • Price: 37,89 €
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  • Format: Paperback / softback, 192 pages, height x width x depth: 228x152x14 mm, weight: 298 g
  • Pub. Date: 19-Aug-2021
  • Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
  • ISBN-10: 1787756068
  • ISBN-13: 9781787756069

Dementia brings many challenges, not least its ability to disrupt effective communication. The quality of communication plays a major role in how well people living with a dementia manage. When communication doesn't work well, the complications of dementia are compounded.

Rather than only offering tips on what to say and how to say it, this book explores the underlying motivations of communication, so we can better understand why we say what we do, why we say it the way we do, what can go wrong, and how attempts to fix things can go awry.

As well as considering why communication goes wrong in day-to-day conversations, the chapters offer advice on dealing with awkward moments, the question of deception, and the things we can and can't control in dementia. Readers are asked to reflect on their own role, and how they can manage their own behaviours to avoid unintentionally blocking routes to productive communication.

Including clear action points for carers, bystanders and people with a dementia diagnosis, this book shows how to approach communication to improve outcomes.



A major effect of dementia is its impact on communication. Alison Wray explains why the changes occur and offers practical ideas for avoiding key pitfalls. With attention also to the fraught question of well-intentioned lying, this book offers a wealth of ways to improve conversations and relationships when someone is living with a dementia.

Reviews

A state of relatedness is vital for our social and emotional health, coping, and existential well-being. The changes in communication brought on by neurocognitive disorders pose a palpable threat to these critical elements of our lives. In her accessible and empowering book, Dr. Wray offers hopeful insights and practical strategies to help accommodate. Her perspective is honest, human, and, most remarkably, inclusive of the person living with neurocognitive disorder as a member of its audience. Having managed these issues clinically for 15 years, I can say, without a doubt, that this text is a very welcome addition to the field. -- Douglas W. Lane, Clinical Psychologist, specialty in Older People This is a fascinating book. I wish it had been available when my mum and dad were living with dementia. It asks all the questions I was constantly asking myself as a carer, and addresses them with wisdom and understanding. It's more than a primer on Alzheimer's, it's a book about the human condition. -- Sir Tony Robinson, Broadcaster, Actor and Writer This book is a great resource that provides a family care giver, a friend or a professional carer with an understanding of what is getting in the way of a successful communication with a person with dementia and to have more options for how to respond. -- Jackie Pool, Dementia Care Champion, QCS Quality Compliance Systems

More info

What goes wrong when we try to communicate with people living with dementia, and how to fix it
Acknowledgements 6(1)
Preface: What Is This Book About and Is It for You? 7(2)
1 Introduction
9(20)
2 The Things We Can and Can't Control about Dementia
29(22)
3 Why We Communicate
51(14)
4 What Does Communication Involve?
65(22)
5 When Communication Goes Wrong
87(16)
6 Those Awkward Moments
103(18)
7 Does Dementia Change Someone into a Different Person?
121(18)
8 Dementia and Deception
139(24)
9 Making Communication Work Better
163(20)
References 183(4)
Index 187
Alison Wray is a Research Professor in Language and Communication at Cardiff University. Building on her career as an internationally renowned researcher on formulaic language, since 2007 her research has focused on language and dementia. Alison regularly presents to and works with dementia training and dementia care organisations to disseminate and explain her work.