The Best Friends Approach to Alzheimer's Care
The best Alzheimer's caregivers, say Bell and Troxel, become friends with the knack for calmly directing sufferers through their frightening confusion. Responding with the knack guides a patient to acceptable behavior while providing "cuing about roles and identities." For instance, to a patient's inappropriate sexual advance toward his daughter, a "no-knack approach" would be to angrily respond, "You dirty old man! Stop that" ; one with the knack would be, "Daddy, it's Mary, your daughter. Look what I have here--a photograph of Mother. Isn't she pretty?" The responses suggested for other situations are similar. Bell and Troxel stress that Alzheimer's victims are usually confused, not malevolent or willful, and compassion and indulgence will keep situations from worsening and enhance peace of mind for caregiver and patient alike. This approach is time and energy intensive, but its decency makes the book a potential gold mine for afflicted families. The fill-in-the-blanks "Best Friends Assessment" form, however, makes the book problematic for libraries.Mike Tribby