ISBN-13: 978-0-9788299-0-2
ISBN-10: 0-9788299-0-5
LCCN: 2006909855
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 320
Size: 5.50 x 8.25
Price: $19.95
Carton Quantity: 30

Now in its second printing!

Featured in Library Journal's "Best Consumer Health Books of 2007"

There is a person inside Alzheimer's and any of the other dementias—a person, just like the rest of us.  We each need to be heard, seen, valued and appreciated by another human being—to experience the intangible gifts of humor, wisdom and understanding found in the person-to-person connection.  The disease, no matter how progressed, does not alter the enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from being in vital relationship with others, but the person's opportunity for connection lessens, most often because we presume it too difficult or impossible.

Creating opportunities for connection with persons with dementia is basic compassionate and transformational care. How to do just that is the core teaching of this book.  When we can hear and appreciate the person's wisdom, see a gesture that weaves us into his world, or enjoy a moment of mutual spontaneous emotion, we both move beyond isolation and hopelessness.  Each of us grows in relationship with the other.

This book offers over 20 years of the author's experience and a practicum by way of dozens of examples and anecdotes.  The storytelling places the reader in the rich interactions with persons with dementia that helped bring the author back to the basics of how one person connects with another.  We can create connections in the moment and get beyond the barriers by practicing these six basic principles taught by religious and spiritual traditions throughout time:

- Intend a connection
- Free yourself of judgment

- Love
- Open to being loved
- Silence
- Thankfulness

Internalizing these principles has helped hundreds of caring family members, friends and professionals bridge the gap between their known and comfortable worlds and the sometimes daunting, uncharted territory of time spent with a person with dementia.

*Prices subject to change without notice.