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Telling Tales about Dementia: Experiences of Caring

Author:	Lucy Whitman (Editor)
Published By:	Jessica Kingsley (London)
Pages:	208
Price:	£14.99
ISBN:	978 1 84310 941 9

Reviewed by Ursula Franklin.

This book is a collection of accounts of those living with relatives who have developed dementia; they record the horrific cloistering effect on their lives. Dementia steals from them the character they love until they are not recognisable. The stories record the unstinting devotion of the carers as they face memory loss, unexpected physical changes and vast variations in mood; suspicion, timidity, aggression and utterly unreasonable behaviour in their loved ones.

I found this book harrowing, and the vulnerability of both patient and carer a challenge to my own ignorance. I pondered the bewildering accounts and was full of admiration at the courage and love found in these heroic carers of the discarded ones.  Many of the writers speak of the lack of information from the health service and the lack of support.  Some have to cope on their own and gradually find out that the illness is not depression, as first diagnosed, but dementia from which the patient will not recover.

This book has been written in the hope of providing encouragement, comfort and reassurance to carers in their isolated circumstances. The hope is that the reader will understand the stress and pressure that the carer has to face and, if the reader is a professional in the health and social services, maybe the stories will alert them to the needs of people with dementia and their carers.

One in 50 people between the ages of 65 and 70 has some form of dementia compared to 1 in 5 people over 80.  It is time to pay attention.