Rethinking Communication guide to advanced dementia

These are deep issues. They go straight to the heart of our humanity and how we experience relationships. Some of the issues we explore may feel surprising or unsettling. Letting go of ideas that govern what relating looks like opens up new vistas. It frees us to look at dementia with fresh, curious eyes. It is ironic to realise that the approach described in this book stems from theory that is 30 years old. Kitwood: The original radical In the early 1990s, Tom Kitwood was a trailblazer, trying to change how society thinks about dementia. He famously said that the way dementia impacts on the brain is about much more than the illness itself. The impact of dementia depends on how other people feel about that diagnosis. He championed the idea that people with dementia are disabled not just by the illness, but by the discomfort and anxiety that other people around them carry. At the time, this was considered to