An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party: Unveiling the Mystery, Inner Experience, and Gifts of Dementia ~ NEW
ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION RECOMMENDED RESOURCE
ANNOUNCING OUR NEW EDITION
An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party investigates the widely held belief that dementia is only a “mindless pathology”. Instead, the authors discover an essential, soulful, spiritual process that can be facilitated right from Alzheimer’s dementia onset.
This book provides pioneering and innovative research on the Alzheimer’s dementia pandemic, and serves as an intimate, intense, compelling beacon, shining light on the disease’s potential for deeper meaning and …
From our readers of “An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party”
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“Insight on how to open our minds and hearts to the person who is suffering from the disease is invaluable.”
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“I bought one copy of your book and am so impressed that I am now buying ten copies so that I may have copies available to family members of persons with dementia, and am also going to give copies …
Training Resource ~ An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party
“Speaking as a professional psychologist, teacher, and trainer, I highly recommend An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party as an exceptional training tool not only for professionals, but also for family members, friends and caregivers.
It is exceptional because Tom and Stan have made it interactive. They do not simply present abstract psychological concepts, but develop detailed reality based personal experiences enhanced with clear concise observations, structure, and …
What is dementia?
Dementia is a loss of mental function in two or more areas such as language, memory, visual and spatial abilities, or judgment severe enough to interfere with daily life. Dementia itself is not a disease, but a broader set of symptoms that accompanies certain diseases or physical conditions.
Well known diseases that cause dementia include Alzheimer’s disease, multi infarct dementia, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, Pick’s disease, AIDS, alcohol and …
continue readingNine Near Death and Coma Work Tips for Helpers and Family
Some of the tips we provide below may be useful for helpers and family who ponder what to do in end of life states. Follow these tips if they are useful, but please don’t use these suggestions as commandments.
Please value feeling skills or meta-skills (feeling attitudes that you bring with your deeply centered presence) as much as skills. (see Amy Mindell’s Coma: A Healing Journey, A Guide for Family Friends …
Preface to An Alzheimer’s Surprise Party ~ NEW 2009 EDITION
In this groundbreaking work Tom Richards and Stan Tomandl offer a new and exciting shift in the therapeutic mind set for family, friends, and professionals working with people in Alzheimer’s and other dementia states.
They propose that people with Alzheimer’s dementia are not spiraling downward into “mindless pathology”, but are human beings in states of altered consciousness, parallel realities, that may be important and meaningful experiences for them, their families, …
continue readingComa Work and Palliative Care
Coma Work and Palliative Care is an introductory communication skills manual for people living in delirium, dementia, coma, and end of life processes.
This is a definitive resource for communication techniques and care etiquette in these difficult and sacred situations.
Remote, minimally responsive states of consciousness do not equate with lack of sensitivity. On the contrary, people in these very far out remote states of altered consciousness can be very delicate and …
Coma and Remote State Directive
The COMA AND REMOTE STATE DIRECTIVE is a legal document; an advance directive, also known as a living will. The intention of this document is to implement your wishes if you are ever concerned with communication and decision making durIng confusion, delirium, stupor, coma, vegetative state, depression, catatonia, dementia, and other remote states of altered consciousness.
This document helps ensure that you receive verbal and nonverbal support for your awareness of …
Words of appreciation
“He visitado su sitio y lo encuentro excelente. Soy medico especialista en Gerontologia y Geriatria. En estos momentos estoy tratando de verticalizarme en le tema de los trastornos cognitivos, en especifico las dementias. Su sitio web me es de gran utilidad.
Sin mas, agradecida.”
DRA. NIURKA CASCUDO
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“Thanks, Tom, for your precious work and love and sensitivity working with people at the ends of life in situations where normally they are …
Early Stage Alzheimer’s
AN ALZHEIMER’S SELF PORTRAIT
This “picture of Alzheimer’s” was drawn by a 76 year old woman in her third year of early stage Alzheimer’s, who was still capable of living in an independent living facility.
Her “self” portrait depicts her personal experience of Alzheimer’s as “outside float” and “floating around” like “Casper, the friendly ghost.”
Six months after Sentient Care work with her and her family, which included this sketching exercise, her daughter …
