Practical Dementia Care for Adults with Down Syndrome or with Intellectual Disabilities

Dementia in adults with Down syndrome or with intellectual disabilities is a rapidly growing field of health and social care. There is, however, limited information available for families and health care providers on how best to manage associated behaviours and difficulties. This book is the first published book to provide day to day practical advice on how to care for a person with Down syndrome or with intellectual disabilities who suffers from dementia. The book primarily emphasises how best to cope with the clinical problems of dementia but does include information on epidemiology, on the common types of dementia and on the historical perspective of dementia in Down syndrome and intellectual disabilities. It discusses the wide range of physical, psychological, social and legal issues of the different levels of dementia from the time of diagnosis to the end of life. The book includes chapters on aggression, epilepsy, drug treatments and end of life issues. This book is aimed principally at family members and health care providers, but is also recommended for professionals, including physicians, psychologists, nurses, health related therapists, working in the field of ageing and intellectual disabilities. It supplements the more medically orientated textbooks on dementia in Down syndrome or intellectual disabilities. It is an invaluable resource in this much neglected area of care provision.