(This post is a part of a series; the first one can be found here.)

Here again are the four important take-aways from Dr. Paul Raia’s Q&A session with healthcare professionals dealing with dementia that I want to talk about here:

1. Four things that slow down Alzheimer’s progress in the early stages (discussed here)
2. The dementia diagnostic process: is it important that patients go through it? What does it involve? (discussed here)
3. Depression and dementia (discussed here)
4. Two books he recommends most for families to read (discussed in this post)

4. Two books he recommends most for families to read

Learning to Speak Alzheimer’s: A Groundbreaking Approach for Everyone Dealing with the Disease, Joanne Koenig Coste, 2004 — Koenig Coste and Dr. Raia together developed Habilitation Therapy. This book introduces the methods behind this therapy, and gives lots of hands-on examples and suggestions about how caregivers — from family to professionals — can apply it. I agree that this is a vital read!

Ten Thousand Joys & Ten Thousand Sorrows: A Couple’s Journey Through Alzheimer’s, Olivia Ames Hoblitzelle, 2010 — originally published under a different title, this has been recently re-released. Dr. Raia knew Mr. Hoblitzelle, and recounted to us Dr. Raia told him he was nuts to try to teach meditation to Alzheimer’s patients. “I said, ‘Attention is exactly their deficit! It’ll never work!’ I told him.  Well, that what he did for two years, went all around the world teaching. It worked great!”  I’ve not read this title, but look forward to doing so very soon.