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By Sylvia Cox and John Keady: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1st edition 1999 (304 pages).
This book is aimed at professionals and explores the implications for younger people (anyone under 65) with dementia and their families at personal, planning, and service development levels.
The 17 papers, mostly by contributors from the U.K. and Australia use case studies to introduce the issues surrounding treating individuals with early onset dementia and developing an understanding of the individual’s experience of the world.
Part I: Setting the Scene provides a medical overview of various forms of dementia, discussions of differential diagnosis, and needs assessment considerations.
Part 2: Specific Considerations details dementias related to medical conditions such as HIV, Huntington’s Disease, and intellectual disabilities.
Part 3: Developing an Individual Understanding covers the perceptions of those with dementia with implications for care giving. It also highlights the complexity of life situations particular to this age group i.e. financial, still parenting, supporting elderly parents, employment, etc. It also discusses the special role of younger caregivers.
Part 4: Practice Developments talks about the challenges with differentiated psychosocial interventions, medication, rate and progression of symptoms, and social issues such as loss of work role, financial concerns, and self-esteem. This section also looks at specific therapy approaches such as cognitive management, errorless learning, behavioural management, emotional management, and support groups.
I found the book well-written, easy to understand, and interesting to follow. The case histories helped to illustrate a point. As each chapter was written by a different author, some repetition does occur. In Part 2, “intellectual disabilities” are referred to as “learning disabilities”. The definition of a learning disability appears to be different in Great Britain. In North America, this does not imply an intellectual disability and this may be of concern to professionals or family members reading it here.
Although aimed at professionals, “Younger People with Dementia” has a wide-range of information for caregivers, families and practitioners about dementia in younger people (under 65) and provides information about best practice approaches.
Reviewed by Mary Osberg, volunteer with the Alzheimer Society of B.C.
