Alzheimer’s Australia libraries combined have a collection of over 14,000 resources related to dementia. This year there have been in excess of 8500 loans from our collections.
Undoubtedly a great resource available to the community…but where do you begin?
When visiting the local bookshop we all welcome the influence of an award sticker or a book that proudly boasts itself a staff recommended read. Taking inspiration from this and to assist our users to navigate our collection we have developed the Alzheimer’s Australia staff recommend sticker.
Our key criteria
- Well written/produced
- Consistently good feedback from borrowers
- Positive reviews from specialist clinicians
- The library staff loved it!
So what have our users been borrowing this year? Below is a selection from the top 20 in no particular order.
As always we welcome your feedback and would love to learn what would be on the top of your list.
DVD: Alive inside: A story of music & memory / A film by MRossato-Bennett (2014)
Alive Inside is a joyous cinematic exploration of music’s capacity to reawaken our souls and uncover the deepest parts of our humanity. Filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett chronicles the astonishing experiences of individuals around the country who have been revitalized and awakened by the simple act of listening to the music of their youth.
Green vanilla tea / Marie Williams (2013)
When Marie Williams’ husband Dominic started buying banana Paddle Pops by the boxful it was out of character for a man who was fit and health conscious. Dominic, Marie and their two sons had migrated to Australia to have a life where they shared more family time — when gradually Dominic’s behaviour became more and more unpredictable. It took nearly four years before there was a diagnosis of early onset dementia coupled with motor neurone disease. Marie began to write, as she says, as a refuge from the chaos and as a way to make sense of her changing world.
DVD: Glen Campbell…I’ll Be Me (2014)
In 2011, music legend Glen Campbell set out on an unprecedented tour across America. He thought it would last 5 weeks; instead it went for 151 spectacular sold out shows over a triumphant year and a half. What made this tour extraordinary was that Glen had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He was told to hang up his guitar and prepare for the inevitable. Instead, Glen and his wife went public with his diagnosis and announced that he and his family would set out on a ‘Goodbye Tour.’ The film documents this extraordinary journey as he and his family attempt to navigate the wildly unpredictable nature of Glen’s progressing disease using love, laughter and music as their medicine of choice.
Fiction: Still Alice / Lisa Genova (2009)
Alice Howland is proud of the life she worked so hard to build. A Harvard professor, she has a successful husband and three grown children. When she begins to grow forgetful, she dismisses it for as long as she can, but when she gets lost in her own neighbourhood she knows that something has gone terribly wrong.
Caring for a loved one with dementia : a mindfulness-based guide for reducing stress and making the best of your journey together / Marguerite Manteau-Rao (2016)
An approach to caring with calm, centered presence; responding with compassion; and maintaining authentic communication, even in the absence of words. Most importantly, discover ways to manage the grief, anger, depression, and other emotions often associated with dementia care.
Before I Forget: How I Survived a Diagnosis of Younger-Onset Dementia at 46 / Christine Bryden (2015)
When she was just 46, Christine Bryden – science advisor to the prime minister and single mother of three daughters – was diagnosed with younger-onset dementia. Doctors told her to get her affairs in order as she would soon be incapable of doing so. Twenty years later she is still thriving, still working hard to rewire her brain even as it loses its function.
The 36-hour day : a family guide to caring for people with Alzheimer disease, other dementias, and memory loss in later life / Nancy L. Mace, Peter V. Rabins (2011)
Information on diagnostic evaluation; resources for families who care for people with dementia; legal and financial information; information on nursing homes and other communal living arrangements; research, medications, and the biological causes and effects of dementia.
What the Hell Happened to My Brain? : Living with dementia / By Kate Swaffer (2016)
Kate Swaffer was just 49 years old when she was diagnosed with a form of younger onset dementia. In this book, she offers an all-too-rare first-hand insight into that experience, sounding a clarion call for change in how we ensure a better quality of life for people with dementia. Kate describes vividly her experiences of living with dementia, exploring the effects of memory difficulties, loss of independence, leaving long-term employment, the impact on her teenage sons, and the enormous impact of the dementia diagnosis on her sense of self.
DVD: Filling the day with meaning / Teepa L Snow (2011)
Through learning about what makes an activity engaging and valuable, how to create a safe and inviting environment and more with early-onset dementia patients, this DVD helps professional caregivers to provide the best care for people with dementia.
Loving someone who has dementia : how to find hope while coping with stress and grief / Pauline Boss (2011)
Offers approaches to understand and cope with the emotional strain of care-giving. Boss’s book builds on research and clinical experience, yet the material is presented as a conversation. She shows you a way to embrace rather than resist the ambiguity in your relationship with someone who has dementia.
Many know Kimberly Williams-Paisley as the bride in the popular Steve Martin remakes of the”Father of the Bride”movies, the calculating Peggy Kenter on”Nashville,” or the wife of country music artist, Brad Paisley. But behind the scenes, Kim’s mother, Linda, was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia that slowly took away her ability to talk, write and eventually recognize people in her own family. “Where the Light Gets In” tells the full story of Linda’s illness called primary progressive aphasia from her early-onset diagnosis at the age of 62 through the present day. Kim draws a candid picture of the ways her family reacted for better and worse, and how she, her father and two siblings educated themselves, tried to let go of shame and secrecy, made mistakes, and found unexpected humour and grace. Ultimately the bonds of family were strengthened, and Kim learned ways to love and accept the woman her mother became. With a moving foreword by actor and advocate Michael J. Fox, “Where the Light Gets In” is a heartwarming tribute to the often fragile yet unbreakable relationships we have with our mothers.”
What would you do if you started to disappear? At the age of 45, our friend Laury Sacks, an ebullient actress and the doting mother of two small children, had a reputation as the quickest wit in the room. At the age of 46, she began forgetting words. Soon she could barely speak.
“Mom has nothing to do—I’m concerned about her quality of life.”
To be diagnosed with dementia is “like being blindfolded and let loose in a maze”. There is no clear treatment to follow, because each case is unique. But once thickets of misunderstanding and misinformation are brushed aside, there are pathways to hope.
Three women – three secrets – one heart-stopping story. Katie, seventeen, in love with someone whose identity she can’t reveal. Her mother Caroline, uptight, worn out and about to find the past catching up with her. Katie’s grandmother, Mary, back with the family after years of mysterious absence and ‘capable of anything’, despite living with Alzheimer’s disease. As Katie cares for an elderly woman who brings daily chaos to her life, she finds herself drawn to her.
In January 2015 a film version of the book Still Alice by Lisa Genova was released. This film has received critical acclaim and to date, has won multiple awards.
Podcast: A review of the film Still Alice, panel discussion by Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation, Episode 25.
Article: Still Alice, and the advocacy for Alzheimer’s in fiction, Matthew Wade, 29 January 2015, The Conversation
Firefly dreams, 2004
Finding Nemo, 2003