When dementia strikes it can have a devastating impact not only on the individual but also their family and friends.
Awareness of the condition has grown in recent years but there is still so much we don’t know and that can lead to a range of emotions including anger, fear, isolation and depression.
It’s good to talk about dementia (it’s something we do in our homes for example) and it’s also good to read about it and the good news is that however dementia has impacted on you, there are a growing number of books that can help.
Wendy Mitchell wrote her first book “Somebody I Used To Know” after she was diagnosed aged 58 with early-onset Alzheimer’s.
Wendy describes first hand how the condition affected her life, wondering which version of herself would surface each day, how it impacted on her career in the NHS, her ability to drive, cook and run, to recognise her family and the threat it posed to her independence.
Now, three years on, Wendy has published a second book: “What I Wish People Knew About Dementia”.
In this book, Wendy looks beyond her own experience of the condition with interviews recounting how dementia has affected others. Whilst no two cases will be exactly the same, Wendy drew comfort from meeting people with shared experience and hopes the book will also bring comfort and knowledge to others.
With any dementia diagnosis one of the hardest tasks can be to let loved ones know and especially young people.
The booklet “The Milk’s In The Oven” explains how people with dementia might behave and feel, and provides young people with information about the illness and how to cope if someone they know has dementia.
Written by Lizi Hann and first published by the Mental Health Foundation in 1998, the book has been regularly updated as knowledge around dementia has increased.
It includes a foreword by actor and presenter Tony Robinson, whose parents contracted Alzheimer’s. There are a number of exercises in the booklet which is often used by schools as part of the personal, social, health and economic (pshe) syllabus.
