Speaking Dementia: Making Sense Of It All (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781546463405)

Frena Gray-Davidson, British born, American by choice. She worked as journalist in Asia for 15 years, was a NBC Radio Correspondent for Nepal and BBC stringer in HK. In HK, Frena studied acupuncture and Chinese medicine with Chinese healer Dr. But Chak-kei and tai chi with Martial Arts Master Ha Kwok-cheung. She wrote several books on Chinese healing and culture, including "Harmony Rules" and "The Book of Chinese Beliefs", reprinted as "Rough Tao". She also wrote guidebooks to Hong Kong, Thailand and Sri Lanka. She accidentally became involved in Alzheimer's care soon after her US arrival in 1986 and is now regarded as an international expert in dementia behaviors and everyday communication success with people living with dementia. Her book has transformed the daily struggle of caregivers into being a life with more joy, more relief and many more ways to make caregiving work for everyone. She is a certified Activity Director and founded a day care program under the US National Model Alzheimer's Day Care Program in 1993. She has been an Ombudsman for Long-term Care and was owner/manager of two small care homes. Her unique approach is called "Brilliant and inspirational," by the Alzheimer Disease Society of England and she gives memory care staff training and direct care staff training and family caregiver seminars for organizations all over the world. Her writings on Alzheimer's and dementia come directly from her 20 years of hands-on work as a caregiver. She teaches the reality of dementia and the art and psychology of understanding what is not lost. Good communication skills evoke the heart and spirit of the person inside dementia. She considers that we have as a society too long abandoned the person within dementia. In concentrating largely on the cure, she feels that both caregivers and those with dementia have been left to struggle alone. Frena's experience of care-giving assumes that true communication is possible with the person with dementia. She feels that the key to solving issues of difficult behaviors in those with dementia and grief in caregivers is largely the same. It is not hard for those who care for people with dementia to learn how to reach that person within. Then caregivers discover they can create the emotional, spiritual and family healing needed to bring light to their challenging journey. Frena feels this applies equally to family caregivers and direct care staff, both of whom need that light for the journey.