In People with Dementia Speak Out, twenty-three people from diverse backgrounds share their experiences of living with dementia. The contributors are honest about the frustrations and fears they face, but overall there is remarkably little self-pity and a great deal of optimism. The personal accounts demonstrate that with the right support at the right time, and above all with opportunities to continue to contribute to society in a meaningful way, it is possible to live well with dementia. These fascinating stories bring to life the characters behind the collective term 'people with dementia', and show that each person with dementia is a unique individual with their own personality, history, beliefs, cultural affinities and sense of humour, and their own way of adapting to the disabilities and opportunities which this condition confers. This unique collection of personal testimonies will be reassuring and encouraging for those coming to terms with a diagnosis of dementia, for their families and carers, and is essential reading for health and social care professionals at all levels
Foreword by Graham Stokes. Introduction. 1. Grandad - can you go and get a new brain? Graham Browne. 2. Are you sure you've got Alzheimer's? Alex Burton. 3. A doctor in search of a diagnosis. Jennifer Bute. 4. I'll ken it when I see it. Ross Campbell. 5. Liberation! Dizi Conti. 6. I'm gone older. Everything change. Romanina Contucci. 7. Riding the rollercoaster. Carol Cronk. 8. I still remember. Halide Eames. 9. I never get tired of dancing. Midge Flint. 10. They deal with everybody as an individual. Clarice Hall. 11. One place to another. Abdul Haque. 12. A double diagnosis. Brian Hennell. 13 Anybody been kind to me, it stays with me. Pearl Hylton. 14. Love me for who I am. Ann Johnson. 15. Down with Dementia. Sylvia Kahn. 16. Deciding to resist. Lazarus. 17. You keep-a-knockin' but you can't come in. Alex Lindsay. 18. The doors of perception. Edward McLaughlin. 19. Journey into Alzheimerland. Peter Mittler. 20. Who's afraid of the flying bombs? Lorna Moore. 21. Time to break the taboo. Rukiya Mukadam. 22. Something better. Mary Tall. 23. A Psychiatrist with Dementia. Daphne Wallace. Appendix I: Editing Challenges. Appendix II: Narrative Based Medicine. Appendix III: LGBT People with Dementia.
I read Lucy Whitman's first book - Telling Tales About Dementia: Experiences of Caring - and found it riveting. I frequently recommend it as essential reading for those working in this field. It presents an expertly edited text that accurately reflects a range of carer experiences. Shortly after its publication she mentioned to me that she was considering a 'sister' text that portrayed the experiences and narratives of people with dementia to which I stated that this would be an excellent accompaniment to Telling Tales. We are starting to see an emerging number of books that give first hand narrative to what it is to have dementia. People with Dementia Speak Out!, Lucy's second edited text, makes a valuable contribution to this small but growing body of knowledge.
