From: Gail E Sonnesso [mailto:gsonnesso@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 25, 2012 8:19 AM
To: 'Gail E Sonnesso'
Cc: 'Angelo Sonnesso'
Subject: that during the course of Alzheimer's, caregivers can have a vibrant and meaningful relationship with people who have the disease.
Dr. Zeisel has developed important innovations that
serve the emotional and intellectual needs of people living with Alzheimer's.
—Barry Reisberg, MD, New York University School of Medicine
As many as five million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. The popular perception
of the disease is that people who receive an Alzheimer’s diagnosis are lost to themselves
and to those who love them—and that they have no future. But as John Zeisel, an innovator in nonpharmacological approaches to treating Alzheimer’s, makes clear in this book, this view is wrong. The disease often lasts ten to fifteen years—a time span that definitely constitutes a future. In I’m Still Here, Zeisel shows that during the course of Alzheimer’s, caregivers can have a vibrant and meaningful relationship with people who have the disease.
I’m Still Here focuses on connecting with individuals with Alzheimer’s through their abilities that don’t diminish with time, such as understanding music, art, facial expressions, and touch. Zeisel demonstrates that people who have the disease are highly creative and emotionally intelligent. By harnessing these capacities, and by using other approaches to treatment—such as building memory cues into their living environment, which encourages independent movement and helps eliminate sources of frustration—it’s possible to offer them a quality life with connection to others and to the world.
A book that will give great hope and encouragement to anyone dealing with Alzheimer's sufferers either in a professional situation or at home' BOOKSELLER 'I'm Still Here offers a revolutionary yet pragmatic map for the compassionate care of people with cognitive impariments like Alzheimer's disease. John Zeisel's brilliant, soft-spoken, and heartwarming manifesto is a must read for anyone whose life involves helping someone with these special needs
—Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence
John Zeisel proves a theory that many of us who love someone with Alzheimer's have suspected: that the person who is changed by the disease is still inside, waiting to be awakened and nurtured with love, with music, with paintings, and with poems, as well as one-on-one communication and physical and mental exercises. As the number of people with Alzheimer's continues to rise, this is a wonderful, much-needed book
—Mary Ellen Geist, author of Measure of the Heart
Gail E Sonnesso M.S.
Executive Director
The GEM Center, Inc.
Where Group Respite is Therapeutic for both our Participants, and their Families.
(252) 480-3354
