Living with Alzheimer's - A Personal Guidebook for the Family

By Peter Jarman

"Living with Alzheimer's" serves as a personal guidebook. The information contained inside has been gathered over a two-year period through a personal experience of caring for a loved one with the disease. 

This book guides you through each of the stages and provides insights into what you can expect and what you should prepare for, how to react and respond to changes in behaviours and abilities throughout the progression of the disease.

There is a need to keep raising awareness of Alzheimer's disease. But, there seems a greater need to help guide families through the process early, because the subject matter is important, and the outcome will have a profound impact on everyone's lives involved in caring for a loved one with the disease. 

This book therefore, is crucial for promoting early detection, reducing the stigma attached, and advocating for more research and support services. 
By recognising the signs and symptoms of Alzheimer's enables early intervention for you and your family, which can lead to better disease management and an improved quality of life for those affected.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Jarman
• Release date: Apr 17, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223362227

Peter Jarman

Peter Jarman, based in London, UK, is an industry leading construction professional with over 25 years experience in the field. Most recently overseeing the construction of the new 'Elizabeth-Line' train system, at Paddington station in London. Peter is renowned for his pioneering methods to deliver efficiency and health and safety whilst overseeing some of the most complex engineering projects in Europe. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts admitted for his innovative work and application of new methods. A long term volunteer member of a charity,  Entelechy Arts Company originating with the Rotherhithe Theatre Workshop (Southeast London) in 1982. His long standing relationship with Entelechy Arts lead to his role as a long-term voluntary arts practitioner, and Trustee of the charity. Peter developed keen interests in drama, art, music, photography and technology. This successfully enabled his early adoption, creation and application of creative problem-solving strategies in some of the most 'resistant to change' industries. He continues to apply creative thinking processes in both a professional and personal capacity. ...and now he likes to write about it.

Book preview

Introduction

I want to jump straight into this book on Alzheimer's because the subject matter is important, and the outcome will have a profound impact on everyone involved in caring for loved ones with the disease. I am not intending for this be become wordy and filled with jargon. It needs to be concise, factual and most of all, easy to understand and easy to follow.

By way of an introduction, I am not an expert by any means. I am just an individual, who is, along with my family, directly experiencing a loved one with the onset of Alzheimer's. It has been progressing gradually over the past two years, to a point where responsibility for the individuals' well-being has been divided up between husband, siblings and extended family to cover twenty-four hour care.

I am aware that Alzheimer's is a universal disease, and that each Country will have its own procedures when it comes to dealing with health-care and financial matters. I am writing from a United Kingdom perspective but, will try to acknowledge when certain procedures may differ from my own.

In short, each person affected by Alzheimer's will have a very different experience which makes everyone unique. At the same time, each family member concerned has to quickly learn and respond immediately by adapting their current responsibilities, juggle their personal and professional commitments, overcome family dynamics including sibling rivalry if need be, and even consider their location and timings in order to give immediate care. The fact is, your current life-style is going to change rapidly. So, I want you to be aware of this and for you to know what is going to happen next, to allow you to plan ahead of time.

For me, the main idea of this book is for you to learn the order in which things will happen and how to react and respond to these changes as your loved one goes through each stage of the disease. Arm you with a checklist, if you will. This book is as much about you as it is your loved one.

By its nature, there is not a 'one-solution-fits-all' approach to this. There is no manual as such. So, I felt the need to write my own. By gathering the information relevant to my family's experience, has created a set of steps that you (the carer) can discover and put in place to make your new life manageable, their life more comfortable, and ease the burden and expectations for everyone involved.

In our experience, it has been a mixture of discovery in hind-sight, knowledge from family members going through the same experience previously, and also through information provided to us by the respective authorities, charities, and organisations. I am attempting to put all the information into one easy-to-reach place for you.

What you can expect from this book.

The Structure:

In Chapter