Includes index.

1. Dementia -- What is dementia? -- The person who has dementia -- Where do you go from here? -- 2. Getting medical help for the person who has dementia -- Evaluation of the person with a suspected dementia -- Finding someone to do an evaluation -- The medical treatment and management of dementia -- The physician -- The nurse -- The social worker -- The geriatric care manager -- The pharmacist -- 3. Characteristic behavioral symptoms in people who have dementia -- The brain, behavior, and personality : why people who have dementia do the things they do -- Caregiving: some general suggestions -- Memory problems -- Overreacting, or catastrophic reactions -- Combativeness -- Problems with speech and communication -- Problems the person who has dementia experiences in making himself understood -- Problems the person who has dementia experiences in understanding others -- Loss of coordination -- Loss of sense of time -- Symptoms that are better sometimes and worse at other times -- 4. Problems in independent living -- Mild cognitive impairment -- Managing the early stages of dementia -- When a person must give up a job -- When a person can no longer manage money -- When a person can no longer drive safely -- When a person can no longer live alone -- When you suspect that someone living alone is developing dementia -- What you can do -- Moving to a new residence -- 5. Problems arising in daily care -- Hazards to watch for -- In the house -- Outdoors -- Riding in the car -- Highways and parking lots -- Smoking -- Hunting -- Nutrition and mealtimes -- Meal preparation -- Mealtimes -- Problem eating behaviors -- Malnutrition -- Weight loss -- Choking -- When to consider tube feeding -- Exercise -- Recreation -- Personal hygiene -- Bathing -- Locating care supplies -- Dressing -- Grooming -- Oral hygiene -- Incontinence (wetting or soiling) -- Urinary incontinence -- Bowel incontinence -- Cleaning up -- Problems with walking and balance; Falling -- Becoming chairbound or bedfast -- Wheelchairs -- Changes you can make at home -- Should environments be cluttered or bare? -- 6. Medical problems -- Pain -- Falls and injuries -- Pressure sores -- Dehydration -- Pneumonia -- Constipation -- Medications -- Dental problems -- Vision problems -- Hearing problems -- Dizziness -- Visiting the doctor -- If the ill person must enter the hospital -- Seizures, fits, or convulsions -- Jerking movements (myoclonus) -- The death of the person who has dementia -- Cause of death -- Dying at home -- Hospice and palliative care -- Dying in the hospital or nursing home -- When should treatment end? -- What kind of care can be given at the end of life? -- 7. Managing the behavioral and neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia -- The six R's of behavior management -- Concealing memory loss -- Wandering -- Why people wander -- The management of wandering -- Sleep disturbances and night wandering -- Worsening in the evening ("Sundowning") -- Losing, hoarding, or hiding things -- Rummaging in drawers and closets -- Inappropriate sexual behavior -- Repeating the question -- Repetitious actions -- Distractability -- Clinging or persistently following you around ("Shadowing") -- Complaints or insults -- Taking things -- Forgetting telephone calls -- Demands -- Stubbornness and uncooperativeness -- When the person who has dementia insults the sitter -- Using medication to manage behavior -- 8. Symptoms associated with mood change and suspiciousness -- Depression -- Complaints about health -- Suicide -- Alcohol or drug abuse -- Apathy and listlessness -- Remembering feelings -- Anger and irritability -- Anxiety, nervousness, and restlessness -- False ideas, suspiciousness, paranoia, and hallucinations -- Misinterpretation -- Failure to recognize people or things (agnosia) -- "You are not my husband" -- "My mother is coming for me" -- Suspiciousness -- Hiding things -- Delusions and hallucinations -- Having nothing to do -- 9. Special arrangements if you become ill -- In the event of your death.

10. Getting outside help -- Help from friends and neighbors -- Finding information and services -- Kinds of services -- Having someone come into your home -- Adult day care -- Short-stay residential care -- Planning in advance for home care, day care, and respite care -- When the person who has dementia rejects the care -- Your own feelings about getting respite for yourself -- Locating resources -- Paying for care -- Should respite programs mix people who have different problems? -- Determining the quality of services -- Research and demonstration programs -- 11. You and the person who has dementia -- Changes in roles -- Understanding family conflicts -- Division of responsibility -- Your marriage -- Coping with role changes and family conflict -- A family conference -- When you live out of town -- When you are not the primary caregiver, what can you do to help? -- Caregiving and your job -- Your children -- Teenagers -- 12. How caring for a person who has dementia affects you -- Emotional reactions -- Anger -- Embarrassment -- Helplessness -- Guilt -- Laughter, love, and joy -- Grief -- Depression -- Isolation and feeling alone -- Worry -- Being hopeful and being realistic -- Mistreating the person who has dementia -- Physical reactions -- Fatigue -- Illness -- Sexuality -- If your spouse has dementia -- If your impaired parent lives with you -- The future -- You as a spouse alone -- When the person you have cared for dies -- 13. Caring for yourself -- Take time out -- Give yourself a present -- Friends -- Avoid isolation -- Find additional help if you need it -- Recognize the warning signs -- Counseling -- Joining with other families : the Alzheimer's Association -- Support groups -- Excuses -- Advocacy -- 14. For children and teenagers -- 15. Financial and legal issues -- Your financial assessment -- Potential expenses -- Potential resources -- Where to look for the forgetful person's resources -- Legal matters -- 16. Long-term care arrangements -- Types of living arrangements -- Moving with the person who has dementia -- Nursing homes -- Finding a long-term care setting outside the home -- Paying for care -- Guidelines for selecting a long-term care facility -- Moving a person to a residential care facility -- Adjusting to a new life -- Visiting -- Your own adjustment -- When problems occur in the nursing home or other residential care facility -- Sexual issues in nursing homes or other care facilities -- 17. Preventing and delaying cognitive decline -- Usual age-associated changes -- Risk factors identify potential targets and possible approaches for decreasing the risk of dementia -- Cardiovascular factors -- Physical exercise -- Social and intellectual activity -- Diet -- Education -- Diabetes -- Depression -- Toxins -- Head injury -- Age -- Genetics -- Medications -- 18. Brain disorders and the causes of dementia -- Mild cognitive impairment -- Dementia -- Alcohol Use Disorder Associated Dementia -- Alzheimer Disease -- Amnestic (Korsakoff) Syndrome -- Cortico-basal Ganglionic Degeneration -- Depression -- The frontotemporal dementias -- HIV-AIDS --Lewy Body Dementia -- Parkinson Disease Associated Dementia -- Primary Progressive Aphasia -- Progressive Supranuclear Palsy -- Traumatic brain injury (TBI or head trauma) -- Vascular dementia -- Young or early onset dementia -- Other brain disorders -- Delirium -- Stroke and other localized brain injury -- Transient ischemic attack -- 19. Research in dementia -- Bogus cures -- Research in vascular dementia and stroke -- Research in Alzheimer Disease -- Structural changes in the brain -- Brain cells -- Neuroplasticity -- Neurotransmitters -- Abnormal proteins -- Abnormal proteins within brain cells -- Infection -- Nerve growth factors -- Transplants of brain tissue -- Metals -- Prions -- Immunological defects -- Head trauma -- Drug studies -- Epidemiology -- Down Syndrome -- Old age -- Heredity -- Gender -- Neuropsychological testing -- Brain imaging -- Keeping active -- Effect of acute illness on dementia -- Research into the delivery of services -- Protective factors -- One disease or many?