Mental Health

Alzheimer's from the Inside Out

Receiving a diagnosis of AlzheimerÂ’s disease profoundly alters lives and creates endless uncertainty about the future. How does a person cope with such a life-changing discovery? What are the hopes and fears of someone living with this disease? How does he want to be treated? How does he feel as the disease alters his brain, his relationships, and ultimately himself?

Richard Taylor provides illuminating responses to these and many other questions in this collection of provocative essays. Diagnosed with AlzheimerÂ’s disease at age 61, the former psychologist courageously shares an account of his slow transformation and deterioration and the growing division between his world and the world of others.

With poignant clarity, candor, and even occasional humor, more than 80 brief essays address difficult issues faced by those with AlzheimerÂ’s disease, including
• the loss of independence and personhood
• unwanted personality shifts
• communication difficulties
• changes in relationships with loved ones and friends
• the declining ability to perform familiar tasks

This rare, insightful exploration into the world of individuals with AlzheimerÂ’s disease is a captivating read for anyone affected personally or professionally by the devastating disease. Individuals with early-stage AlzheimerÂ’s disease will take comfort in the voice of a fellow traveler experiencing similar challenges, frustrations, and triumphs. Family and professional caregivers will be enlightened by TaylorÂ’s revealing words, gaining a better understanding of an unfathomable world and how best to care for someone living in it.

Essentials of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: Concepts of Care in Evidence-Based Practice

Author is in private practice in Oklahoma City, OK. Textbook of essential information about psychiatric nursing. For students. Includes highlighted patient education boxes and a chapter on community mental health nursing. Author wrote the Brandon/Hill title: Psychiatric/ Mental Health Nursing: Concepts of Care, c1996. Softcover. DNLM: Psychiatric Nursing--methods.

Foundations of Mental Health Care (LPN Threads)

Now part of the popular LPN Threads series, the updated 3rd edition of this textbook describes the essentials of mental health care spanning a wide variety of clinical settings. This book is known for its solid coverage of the foundations of mental health care, its emphasis on therapeutic care, and its chapter-by-chapter coverage of specific psychological and psychosocial problems. In addition to reinforcing the connection between mental health and the prevention of mental illness, this practical resource helps nurses and other health professionals care for clients who exhibit a wide range of maladaptive human behaviors. It also focuses on applying concepts of holistic care while helping clients develop more effective attitudes and behaviors.

• Case Studies with client-specific cases and accompanying thought-provoking questions encourage readers to consider the psychosocial aspects of providing care in a real-life context.
  
• A unique section of tear-out review worksheets in the back of the book provide extra practice with engaging exercises such as fill-in-the-blank, matching, multiple-choice questions, and crossword puzzles.
  
• Think About and Cultural Considerations boxes provide insight and thought-provoking points for classroom discussion.
  
• Drug Alert boxes throughout the book identify important points relating to psychotherapeutic medications.
  
• Multidisciplinary, client-specific Sample Client Care Plans include assessment, diagnosis, goals, therapeutic interventions, and evaluation - showing how members of the health care team work together to meet client needs.
  
• Appendices relating to the latest standards of mental health care include a list of DSM-IV-TR diagnoses, a tool for assessing the side effects of antipsychotic medication, and a mental status assessment tool.

• Full-color LPN Threads design includes LPN icons that highlight key information so students can identify special features in this book as well as others in the series.
  
• A new chapter on Cognitive Impairment, Alzheimer's Disease, and Dementia (Chapter 16) includes information on pathophysiology related to signs and symptoms, stages, treatments, structuring the environment, medications, therapies, physical, psychosocial care, coping with behaviors, and providing support for education for caregivers.
  
• Numbered lists of objectives begin each chapter.
  
• Key terms are listed at the beginning of each chapter with new phonetic pronunciations and page number references, highlighted in color at first mention in the text and defined in the glossary.
  
• Think About boxes throughout the text contain Critical Thinking Questions that challenge and strengthen students' understanding of the material.
  
• Key Points at the end of each chapter summarize concepts and call attention to important information.
  
• A complete bibliography and suggested readings, organized by chapter, is included in the back of book.

Nursing Diagnoses in Psychiatric Nursing: Care Plans and Psychotropic Medications (Townsend, Nursing Diagnoses in Psychiatric Nursing Townsend,)

A pocket-sized resource for helping psychiatric nurses develop practical, individualized care plans for their patients. Each chapter covers a different DSM-IV disorder, giving an overview and then a nursing diagnosis. Includes new information on anxiety agents, antidepressants, and other psychotropic medications. Previous edition: c1997. Softcover.

Psychiatric Nursing Made Incredibly Easy! (Incredibly Easy! Series)

The Burden of Sympathy: How Families Cope With Mental Illness

In this vivid and thoughtful study, David Karp chronicles the experiences of the family members of the mentally ill, and how they draw "boundaries of sympathy" to avoid being engulfed by the day-to-day suffering of a loved one.
Working from sixty extensive interviews, the author reveals striking similarities in the experiences of caregivers: the feelings of shame, fear, guilt and powerlessness in the face of a socially stigmatized illness; the frustration of navigating the complex network of bureaucracies that govern the mental health system; and most of all, the difficulty negotiating an "appropriate" level of involvement with the mentally ill loved one while maintaining enough distance for personal health. Throughout, Karp sensitively explores the overarching question of how people strike equilibrium between reason and emotion, between head and heart, when caring for a catastrophically ill person. The book concludes with a critical look at what it means to be a moral and caring person at the turn of the century in America, when powerful cultural messages spell out two contradictory imperatives: pursue personal fulfillment at any cost and care for the family at any cost.
An insightful, deeply caring look at mental illness and at the larger picture of contemporary values, The Burden of Sympathy is required reading for caregivers of all kinds, and for anyone seeking broader understanding of human responsibility in the postmodern world.

Fundamentals Of Mental Health Nursing

In this updated edition, Kathryn Neeb continues to squarely address mental health within the scope of practical/vocational nursing, emphasizing that LPN/LVNs most commonly care for patients with psychiatric problems in general patient care settings rather than in specialized psychiatric facilities. This targeted approach, along with her accessible, friendly writing style, meets the legal licensing needs for the role of the LPN/LVN thus making Fundamentals of Mental Health Nursing the leader in the LPN educational market.

Healing the Unaffirmed: Recognizing Emotional Deprivation Disorder (Revised and Updated Edition)

Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing

Building knowledge and fostering empathy simultaneously, no other book captures nursing care for patients with psychiatric disorders quite like Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. The distinctive approach of this text is unrivaled, as it utilizes excerpts from literature, movie clips, and classic art to convey actual experiences of clients with psychiatric disorders. The scientific basis of disease is presented for a thorough collection of conditions and disorder types, such as anxiety, depression, mania, and schizophrenia; as well as therapeutic and pharmacological interventions for the people experiencing them. Special consideration is also provided for the suicidal client, the client who abuses chemical substances, and survivors of violence or abuse. Comprehensive in scope and unique in delivery, this title presents the reality of psychiatric nursing care.

The Patient's Voice: Experiences of Illness

The Patient's Voice: Experiences of Illness introduces 16 contemporary autobiographical accounts of psychiatric and somatic illness to students in medicine, nursing and allied health professions. The accounts, written expressley for this book, are of children's and adult's experience of illness and spiritual distress and the ways in which the individuals express their views of compassionate care. They portray the personal transformations which have evolved out of their suffering. The cover art was painted expressley for this book by Dino Cavalleri of Paris and Sennevoy le Haut. The book and Teacher's Manual have been translated into Japanese by Kyoko Nakamura. The Japanese title is Kanjo no Koe Byouki no Taiken. Chikuma Gakugei Bunko Humanities Press, Tokyo, 2001.(ISBN 4480086234) Professor Nakamura wrote in her afterward "If Japanese readers find in these varied accounts the key to understanding others, and if that finding can be utilized in the fields of medicine, nursing, and education, it would be the greatest pleasure for me having introduced and translated the book."