10 Best Books on Dementia for Families and Carers

With just a little insight, it’s simple to understand the isolation and otherness that an individual living with dementia may feel. But often overlooked are the isolation, worry, and practical concern that families and carers experience when facing a dementia diagnosis for a loved one. Turning to books for dementia can help to ensure families and careers feel informed and supported and manage their role more effectively.

Caring for someone with dementia is incredibly difficult, even when the loved one is in a dementia care home. It is a distressing, complex, and frustrating disease for both the individual sufferer and those around them. Therefore, educating yourself about the condition and how to care for someone with dementia effectively while looking after yourself is truly valuable.

Armed with information from books on dementia, you can solve the problems that arise, prepare yourself for battles to come, and do it while managing your quality of life and self-care.

However, we also know that knowing where to start when choosing books on dementia can be bewildering in itself. So, we’ve rounded up a curated list of the 10 best books on dementia for families and carers.

 

1. Dementia Essentials: How to Guide a Loved One Through Alzheimer’s or Dementia and Provide the Best Care

By Jan Hall

Dementia Essentials is both practical and realistic while also providing reassurance. Diving into the different aspects of life from diagnosis onwards, this book is peppered with valuable advice and first-hand insights.

It’s an excellent book for turning to when a new challenge arises, and you need a different strategy or approach. It looks at issues such as medications, choosing a care home, support from health professionals, supporting independence, and lowering aggression. It doesn’t shy away from the most challenging aspects of the disease.

At Eastleigh Care Homes, we also rate this book for its explanations of dementia. Dementia can be challenging to understand, but Hall does an excellent job simplifying what’s happening. We think it’s an empowering book and a great first resource for families and carers.

 

2. Contented Dementia: 24-hour Wraparound Care for Lifelong Wellbeing

By Oliver James

Written by a clinical psychologist, Oliver James, this book aims at balancing the needs of both carer and sufferer so that both can have an as high quality of life as possible. It does this by examining the different stages of the condition, from the random and inconsistent memory losses to much more significant decline.

Oliver James translates this into accessible carer information by introducing the SPECAL method (Specialised Early Care for Alzheimer’s), which rests on links past memories and daily routine elements in the here and now. Dotted with lots of real-life examples, it’s a good book for family members looking to interact positively with their loved one with dementia.

 

3. Dementia: The One Stop Guide

By June Andrews

As its name implies, Dementia: The One Stop Guide is a central port-of-call for every question and concern you may have about caring for your loved one. The book is a highly practical tool that uses simple and clear explanations. It covers a range of subjects such as finances, when to get help, treatment, and supporting an individual at home.

An excerpt of a review in the Nursing Times stated: “June Andrews articulates the complexities of life with dementia in a way that is easy to understand. Written with minimal jargon and medical terminology, her book offers in-depth explanation of the issues and symptoms associated with dementia. But what makes it really special is that it offers realistic and achievable solutions to diverse problems for people with dementia, as well as their carers and health professionals. It explores dementia and its onset in an honest, open way that manages to avoid being scary.”

 

4. The Caregiver’s Guide to Dementia: Practical Advice for Caring for Yourself and Your Loved One

By Gail Weatherill

This fabulous book, written by a Registered Nurse, tackles the fundamental issue of learning to care for you while caring for a loved one with dementia. Gently and carefully linking the reality that your wellbeing is often closely tied to the individual you’re caring for, it’s also a hands-on guide.

It is an American book on dementia, but the principles are helpful to UK families and carers. Each chapter finishes with relaxation and mindfulness exercises, showcasing the importance of your wellbeing in action. We appreciate that it puts love at the heart of caring, given the complexity that dementia throws into relationships.

Michelle Podlesni, president of the National (US) Nurses in Business Association, wrote about this book: “Filled with practical information, action steps, resources and encouragement, Gail’s compassionate and expert knowledge is evident on every page. I highly recommend this book for families to use as a trusted reference that offers guidance, support, and, most of all, hope.”

 

5. What I Wish People Knew About Dementia

By Wendy Mitchell

Recently released and already a Sunday Times Bestseller, What I Wish People Knew About Dementia is an incredible insight into dementia from inside the mind of a sufferer.

Wendy Mitchell was diagnosed with early-onset dementia at just 58. She writes that at the time, she felt that it signalled her life was over, jumping ahead to the clichéd images of the end stages of the disease. Instead, she embraced the fundamental diagnosis she faced and began to live a new life with a new script. The result is this life-affirming book full of delightful wit and much wisdom.

Wendy Mitchell writes: “This book might surprise you, it might inspire you, it will definitely inform you.” It’s not a guide to caring for someone, but it is a fascinating look from the inside which can help you both on your journey.

 

6. Caring for Nigel

By Eileen Murray

While Mitchell’s book gives us an insider’s account of the individual living with dementia, Caring for Nigel provides us with the insider’s account of caring for them as a loved one.

Eileen Murray has courageously shared with us her 4-year diary of caring for her husband. Unfortunately, he also had various other symptoms beyond dementia and Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). Murray wrote the diary as her ‘safety valve’ while caring for him at home before embarking on finding some respite care.

The book is an honest insight into her challenges as a carer. Far from bleak and depressing, there’s much humour included, without shying away from the realities of life.

Caring for Nigel can provide in-the-trenches support for any family carer so that you know that you are far from alone.

 

7. The Selfish Pig’s Guide to Caring: How to Cope with the Emotional and Practical Aspects of Caring for Someone

By Hugh Marriott

This book isn’t written solely for those caring for individuals living with dementia but for anyone with caring responsibilities. Far from being selfish pigs but giving the nod to the guilt that often accompanies being a carer, Marriott has written a book that offers all the information he wishes he knew when he first became a carer.

What’s fantastic about this book is that it really doesn’t shy away from the unsavoury side of being a carer and its impact on your health and wellbeing, both physically and emotionally. It even looks at topics like sex and contemplations of murder!

Alison Ryan, Chief Executive of The Prince Royal Trust for Carers, says, “We’ve needed this book for 20 years. I wish I had been able to read it when I first became a carer.”

 

8. The Dementia Garden

By Rebecca Clements, illustrated by Gloria Vanessa Nicoli

Completely different from our other books listed so far, The Dementia Garden is a children’s book and is a beautiful way of explaining dementia to young children who perhaps have a grandparent or other loved one living with the disease.

The book is a magical story about a little girl called Lily and her grandfather who has dementia. It’s a touching and heart-warming story, and it can help families with young children navigate this difficult topic.

Amazon reviewer ‘Bee’ wrote, “I bought it for my 3 year old granddaughter to help explain my Mum’s illness… it’s actually helped me!”

 

9. How to Help Someone with Dementia: A Practical Handbook

By Dr. Michelle Hamill and Dr. Martina McCarthy

Written by two psychologists, both highly experienced in the NHS and memory clinic work, this book is designed to help address some of the stigma faced following a dementia diagnosis. The focus is on a relationship-centred understanding of the disease, approaching challenges with confidence, and assisting the individual to still live with meaning and purpose.

This book is excellent at helping the reader to understand the different symptoms of dementia and how these affect behaviour. In addition, this is a compassionate and supportive book that allows you to feel like you’ve got a pair of experts in your corner.

10. Essentials of Dementia: Everything You Really Need to Know for Working in Dementia Care

By Dr. Shibley Rahman and Professor Rob Howard

This book is an interesting read written for professionals, but don’t let that put you off as a family carer. If you are a loved one caring for someone living with dementia, you will find this book incredibly informative too.

Serving as a reference guide to best-practice care, it looks at a range of topics and takes the reader through the evidence-based care and practice utilised in caring practice. It covers topics much more relevant to professional carers, such as law, ethics, and safeguarding. Still, as a family carer, this can provide you with invaluable insight regarding what you should expect when choosing paid care for a loved one.

Dr. Gary Mitchell, Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast, says, “Dr Rahman and Professor Howard provide an engaging and eloquent guide to dementia care in their text. In my opinion, the text is a must-read for those who are supporting or caring for people living with dementia, both in a professional or personal capacity.”

Reading about dementia and dementia care can help you be a better carer and take care of yourself. Books on dementia are invaluable and should form part of your carer’s toolkit.