Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People: How Caregivers Can Meet the Challenges of Alzheimer's Disease

It's teaching people how to live positively in any conditions we are in.

Dr. Post is a world-class leader in bioethics and compassionate care of the deeply forgetful. In this profoundly important book, Dr. Post helps readers maneuver the journey from early diagnosis to end of life scenarios with emphasis on truth telling and respect for human dignity. Helping readers address the difficult questions, Dr. Post covers all bases of concern: the biological, financial, cultural, pharmaceutical, psychosocial, and spiritual. He brings our awareness to the politics of dealing with aggressive marketing, the efficacy of available drugs, even how to maneuver complex family dynamics.Dignity is the prevailing theme that guides decision-making and care. Taking the high road of human dignity, Dr. Post inspires us to relate rightly to patients as sovereign beings who remain so in all stages of their cognitive decline. He writes about compassionate care as a sacred trust and social responsibility, offering the ways and means for readers to rise higher in consciousness and in manner of care-taking.The book is written for caregivers in both home and professional settings, as well as for the extended community of family, friends and neighbors who often play a vital role in the dignity equation. Dr. Post reminds readers that the challenge of inspiring dignity for the deeply forgetful requires a shift in consciousness from de-dignification toward full dignity. This shift is key to preventing cultures where the violation of vulnerabilities can all too easily take root.The term “deeply-forgetful” is Dr. Post’s contribution to the lexicon of medical terminology. Noting that stigma is the beginning point of de-dignification, he avoids the word dementia and develops a phrase that exalts and dignifies.In its entirety, this scholarly book is a gift that honors our humanity at every stage in life, particularly when mental capacity wanes. The ethics and principles in it can readily apply to all vulnerable groups.

In a time where the patient narrative is very much in danger, Dr. Stephen Post grounds us with his work about forgetful people in need of advocacy, empathy, and compassion. His reflections and recommendations successfully highlight the need of this ever-growing patient population, and just how we can make a positive difference in their lives, and in many cases, our own lives. Deeply forgetful people need a champion like Dr. Post to "show us the way", and he does so eloquently, meaningfully, and most of all respectfully! A must for your library and dinner table discussions as well.

As an academic family physician & geriatrician I highly recommend this book for the professional as well as the caretaker. The title of the book alone initiates a new language permitting discussion of the deeply forgetful in a positive and productive light. Post instructs us how to stand sideways to our traditional viewpoint of dementia, taking a fresh, non-demeaning perspective that honors consciousness and mysteries of the mind that we should not disregard. His recipe's ingredients of love & hope offered in this tome will prove invaluable to caretakers not only at the practical level but on the spiritual as well.

In this book, Dr Post encourages us to take the important leap that clinicians, caregivers, and all who care to connect with people suffering with Alzheimer's and other conditions of deep forgetfulness must practice. This is the leap into understanding that our patients' and loved ones' minds and identities should not be reduced to cognitive behaviors and neural activity and that ALL people are worthy of being treated with dignity, respect, and yes, love. I highly recommend this book for caregivers and ALL who care. Namaste.

This is a well written book with wonderful stories of hope and inspiration for the caregivers and healthcare professionals who care for deeply forgetful people. I am going to recommend this book to my family physician colleagues and my patients.

This book is a must read for everyone. Our world needs to be better, and this book shows the ways in which we can do that. Through dignity, kindness and compassion are brought forth. Everyone deserves dignity. This book is so very helpful to caregivers but if everyone read it, what a different world we would have, with different experiences, all coming from a place of love, kindness, compassion, and yes, joy and that makes the caregivers role much easier because then we ALL become caregivers of one another. Sharing the load – giving each person, each human being, the tools so they are able to help everyone just by giving everyone the dignity they deserve. This book is so beautifully written. The stories hit your heart and resonate in a way that touches your soul. There are moments where you will smile, laugh, and yes, I admit it, I cried. It makes one think about how we look at ourselves as we look at others. How we treat them. How we want to be treated. Dignity – that one word says it all and that is what this world needs now more than ever. I say this book is a must read for everyone because it’s not just about Alzheimer’s, it’s about all of humanity. To quote Gilbert K. Chesterton – “When people begin to ignore human dignity, it will not be long before they begin to ignore human rights.” We need to be better and we need to start now.

An excellent book, Dr. Post! Thank you for writing Dignity. It is a beautiful narrative, a lovely celebration of caregivers, and more. Your stories and vignettes are especially touching, reminders of the enormous value of assuring dignity, compassion, patience and connectedness. From my perspective, your book is also a study of so many facets of humanity that remain rather mysterious, despite the contributions to date of science, philosophy, and faith. The book is an honest inquiry — since so many answers are yet to be discovered, and some pieces of the human puzzle may never be fully understood, but the search is a most deserving challenge. A very enjoyable read, well-researched, thoughtful, thought-provoking.