Dementia and Social Work Practice: Research and Interventions

by Carole B. Cox PhD (Editor)

Overview

"Practical coverage of driving, day care, support groups, and respite is particularly welcome. This is a good book to have available, not just for social work faculty and students, but also for those in the health sciences, psychology, and sociology. It will be a useful resource for professionals coping with the increasing problems for family and community that an aging population and the epidemic of Alzheimer's disease bring with them....Recommended. Lower-level undergraduate through professionals/practitioners."--Choice

Beyond the immediate and devastating effects dementia can have on individuals and their quality of life are the strains that are placed on the families, caregivers, and communities that support them. Social workers are in a unique position to address all these issues at the same time that they provide care for individuals with dementia.

To facilitate the entrance of social workers into this area of care, Carol B. Cox has edited a volume of expert articles on the biological, psychological, and social aspects of dementia. . Readers will learn the latest assessment instruments, as well as how to distinguish between Alzheimer's and non-Alzheimer's dementias. Intervention strategies for every stage of dementia are presented. The effects of culture and diversity on the treatment of persons with dementia are examined, including examples of successful programs from several countries. The benefits and drawbacks of adult day services, community care, and residential care are discussed. Finally, a discussion of the legal, financial, and psychological stresses faced by caregivers of those with dementia rounds out this much needed text.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826101082
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	04/15/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	456
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Carole B. Cox, PhD, is Professor, Graduate School of Social Service, Fordham University. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the author of more than 50 journal articles and chapters dealing with various aspects of aging and caregiving.

Read an Excerpt

chapter

Table of Contents

"

Contributors
Preface
Foreword
Part 1: Setting the Stage for Social Work, Carole B. Cox

1. Social Work and Dementia, Carole B. Cox
2. Alzheimer's Disease and Non-Alzheimer's Dementias, Darby Morhardt and Sandra Weintraub
3. Assessments of Individuals with Dementia, Victoria Cotrell
4. Social Work and Dementia: Implications of Coexisting Medical Conditions, Katie Maslow

Part 2: The Early Stage and Interventions with Families, Carole B. Cox

5. The Experiences and Needs of People with Early-Stage Dementia, Lisa Snyder
6. Helping Families Face the Early Stages of Dementia, Daniel Kuhn
7. Family Care and Decision Making, Carol J. Whitlatch and Lynn Friss Feinberg
8. Coping with Alzheimer's Disease: Clinical Interventions with Families, Cynthia Epstein

Part 3: Diversity and Dementia, Carole B. Cox

9. Culture and Dementia, Carole B. Cox
10. Psychoeducational Strategies for Latino Caregivers, Maria P. Aranda and Carmen Morano
11. Model Dementia Care Programs for Asian-Americans, Nancy Emerson Lombardo, Bei Wu, Kun Chang, and Jennifer K. Hohnstein
12. Models from Other Countries: Social Work with People with Dementia and Their Caregivers, Jill Manthorpe and Jo Moriarty
13. Caring for Persons With Dementia in Australia, Teorrah Kontos

Part 4: Community Care, Carole B. Cox

14. Care Management with People with Dementia and Their Caregivers, Elizabeth Baxter
15. Community Mobility and Dementia, Nina M. Silverstein and Lisa Peters-Beumer
16. Social Work and Dementia Care Within Adult Day Services, Jed Johnson and Marilyn Hartle
17. Support Groups: Meeting the Needs of Families Caringfor Persons with Alzheimer's Disease, Edna L. Ballard
18. Respite, Rhonda J.V. Montgomery and Jeannine M. Rowe

Part 5: Residential Care and Other Models, Carole B. Cox

19. Information to Promote Quality Dementia Care in Residential Settings, Sheryl Zimmerman
20. Quality Care in Residential Settings: Research into Practice, Jeanne Heid-Grubman

Part 6: Conclusions, Carole B. Cox

21. Concluding Remarks: The Challenge for Social Work, Carole B. Cox
Resources
Index

"

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Carol Cox and her colleagues have written an impressive and extensive volume on dementia care encompassing clinical practice across cultural groups as well as community-based care. This knowledgeable, ecological view of people with dementia and their families will be helpful to all of us in the field of aging."
— Roberta R. Greene, Ph.D, Louis & Ann Wolens Centennial Chair in Gerontology and Social Welfare, The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work

"Even if you think you will never work with families and persons with dementia, you will in some capacity, given the growing number of elders with dementia and how this illness affects the family system. In Dementia and Social Work Practice, chapters crafted by highly regarded social work researchers address the knowledge base related to dementia, evidence-based interventions, dementia among diverse populations and across cultures, community-based services and residential care. The chapters that sensitively address the meaning of dementia among diverse populations are unparalleled. The concluding chapter on the implications for social work cross cuts practice, research and policy, and makes a strong case for social work’s strengths-based person in environment perspective. All social workers can benefit from owning this book as a comprehensive and up-to-date resource guide."
—Nancy R. Hooyman, Hooyman Professor of Gerontology, University of Washington School of Social Work, Co-Principal Investigator, CSWE National Center on Gerontological Social Work Education

"Alzheimer’s and related disorders have been called 'equal opportunity destroyers', cutting a swath through persons with progressive losses (and notably in this book, retained capacities) as entire families are forever changed by its effects. The actor David Hyde Pierce aptly labeled as 'collateral damage' the often silent but insidious health and relationship losses for multigenerational families. Cox and her co-authors, all leaders in social work and dementia research and practice, provide a cohesive and definitive roadmap addressing the direct and collateral damage of progressive memory disorders.

These seasoned clinician/researchers offer practical strategies to enhance quality of life and relationships as well as quality of services for affected persons and their concerned families. Readers will be convinced of the centrality of the recognition of cognitive decline through long-term care to the future of adult development and aging. This is the first volume of its kind to demonstrate how the profession of social work must be poised to meet the immediate, long-term and future needs, preferences and values of persons and families coping with memory disorders from recognition through bereavement.

In this era of 'translational medicine,' there is an equally great need to translate well-designed and rigorously evaluated social work interventions for broad community application. Cox and her colleagues offer an authoritative, theoretically sound, dementia-friendly, practice-feasible and policy-relevant systems perspective. The effects of Alzheimer’s on individuals and communities demands a collaborative interdisciplinary approach and no where are the social work leadership and communication strengths requisite to this approach more evident than in the carefully woven chapters of this tightly edited compendium.

From early stage programs through bereavement and from clinical to psychoeducational and support groups to community respite and advanced dementia care programs, this single volume offers practical, tested and meaningful person-centered and family-friendly strategies. Even better, all authors incorporate culturally sensitive suggestions for adaptation to diverse ethnic, cultural and regional strengths, preferences and needs.

To adapt a wise quote from Rosalynn Carter about family caregivers, in the future there will be only four kinds of social workers – those who work with Alzheimer’s families, those who are part of Alzheimer’s families, those who will work with Alzheimer’s families, or those who will face Alzheimer’s in their immediate personal circles. That future is now, and this book should be required reading now for all student and practicing social workers in all specialties and settings."
—Lisa P. Gwyther, MSW, LCSW, Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Education Director, Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Duke University Medical Center