The below list of books have been compiled by carers, which they have turned to as a helpful resource to help them to cope with caring.
1. Keeping Mum by Marianne Talbot
When her mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Marianne Talbot decided she couldn’t put her into a care home. Instead, for five years, she looked after her mum in her own home. For nearly three of those years she chronicled for the readers of Saga Magazine Online the fears and frustrations, the love and the laughter, and the tears and the traumas of caring. Now, in this heart warming book, you too can meet Marianne, Mum, and the appalling Fatcat.
You will also find plenty of practical tips for caring for someone with dementia and on staying sane whilst doing so, a resources and useful contacts section and Marianne’s reflections on caring from a distance, and on when caring comes to an end. Written for anyone, anywhere, who has anything to do with dementia or with caring; in reading it you will know you are not alone.
2. Days with my father by Philip Toledano
Days With My Father is a son’s photo journal of his aging father’s last years. Following the death of his mother, photographer Phillip Toledano was shocked to learn of the extent of his father’s severe memory loss. He started a blog on which he posted photographs and accompanying reflections on his father’s changing state. Through sometimes sad, often funny, and always loving observations, we follow Toledano as he learns to reconcile the elderly man living in a twilight of half memories with the ambitious and handsome young man he occasionally still glimpses. Days With My Father is an honest and moving reflection about coming to terms with an aging parent.
3. 10 Helpful Hints for Carers by June Andrews
10 Helpful Hints for Carers is an easy-to-read guide for carers living with people with dementia. It provides simple, practical solutions to the everyday problems family carers can face when looking after a person with dementia. Covering areas like how to cope with aggression, creating relaxing environments, ‘wandering’, sleeplessness and how to cope with dementia and depression, it is a mine of information and good advice.
4. Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. At fifty, she’s a cognitive psychology professor at Harvard and a renowned expert in linguistics, with a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow forgetful and disoriented, she dismisses it for as long as she can until a tragic diagnosis changes her life – and her relationship with her family and the world around her – for ever.
5. Living with Cancer – A journey of Hope by Margot Larson
This book is not intended to present expert advice but rather practical, level-headed guidance for anyone whose life has been turned upside down by the prospect of cancer or other serious illness. When you hear or suspect a cancer diagnosis, there is usually no time for long-winded philosophy, or pouring through mountains of data. You need down-to-earth, common sense guidance and you need it quickly. You need a guide to help you navigate the rough waters. A Journey of Hope can inspire readers to build their emotional strength and courage in order to convert chaos into manageable bites.
6. On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. The five stages of grief, first formulated in this hugely influential work forty years ago, are now part of our common understanding of bereavement. The five stages were first identified by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her work with dying patients at the University of Chicago and were considered phases that all or most people went through, when faced with the prospect of their own death. They are now often accepted as a response to any major life change.
However, in spite of these terms being in general use, the subject of death is still surrounded by conventional attitudes and reticence that offer only fragile comfort because they evade the real issues. This groundbreaking book is still relevant – giving a voice to dying people and exploring what impending death means to them, often in their own words. People speak about their experience of dying, their relief in expressing their fear and anger and being able to move forward to a state of acceptance and peace.
7. The Conscious Care Giver: A Mindful Approach to Caring for your Loved One without Losing Yourself by Linda Abbit
Being a carer is a difficult role. It requires pateince, tenderness, selflessness, and hard work. Providing care for another human being, whether a parent, loved one, or as a professional requires a level of self love and self care as well that can not be ignored.While it may be a rewarding experience to care for a loved one, it can also be a stressful, both emotionally and mentally. It is easy to get caught up in taking care of someone else that you forget to take care of yourself and your own physical and emotional well being as well. How do you navigate your role as carer without losing yourself? The conscious caregiver helps readers with information about how to handle the emotional stress, practical information on medical needs and finance and how to care for themselves and their loved ones at the same time.