Voices in Dementia Care: Reimagining the Culture of Care

Cognitive disorders take a toll on everyone--the person living with the condition, their family, friends, caregivers, and the communities they live in. Most of the public's interest has been in the medical research area for this devastating disease, and advice is desperately needed from those who have created innovative solutions with their own first-hand experience.

Voices in Dementia Care is based on a series of interviews with dementia care experts across Europe and the United States and with people living day-to-day with the condition. It provides an intimate look at the challenges of delivering high-quality dementia care with limited resources. The book provides readers a list of best practices that can be adapted and applied in the home and in institutional settings. Voices in Dementia Care is a must-read for anyone caring for loved ones with Alzheimer's, dementia, or other cognitive disorders.

From Voices in Dementia Care--

In these pages, we include transcripts of our interviews with the elder care and long-term care providers we have interviewed about dementia care. The voices of these care professionals are important to hear in their entirety, as they describe the nuances of the challenges inherent in delivering innovative high quality dementia care with limited resources.

Based on our analysis of these interviews, we have identified the critical best practices that we believe all elder and long-term care providers should consider when delivering care to people living with dementia. These best practices can be adapted and applied by the informal caregiver as well--the sister, brother, child, or other loved one who may be responsible for caring for a person living with dementia outside of a traditional care environment.

William A. Haseltine is the Chair and President of ACCESS Health International, a nonprofit organization that works to ensure that all people, no matter their age or where they live, have access to high quality affordable healthcare. He has an active career in science, business, and philanthropy. He is known for his pioneering work on cancer, HIV/AIDS, and genomics. Dr. Haseltine was a professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health and founder of its Division of Biochemical Pharmacology and Division of Human Retrovirology. He has founded twelve biotechnology companies, including Human Genome Sciences, Inc. Eight pharmaceutical products from companies he founded are currently approved by US and international regulatory agencies.

Anna Dirksen is Director of Communications at ACCESS Health International. She has led communications and outreach strategies at a number of multinational organizations and international nonprofits, including at the United Nations Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability in Japan, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and at the UN Secretariat in New York. She also served as Vice President at Corkery Unlimited, one of the leading strategic consulting firms specializing in health and medical communications, and Deputy Director of Communications for the global health organization Population Services International.