Dementia Reimagined

Praise

“Dementia Reimagined is a brave, sobering, and profoundly humane book about one of the most serious challenges we face both as individuals and as a society. As a physician and bioethicist with a family history of dementia herself, Powell excavates the little-known history of the condition, while persuasively arguing that we must supplement our efforts to develop a cure by building an infrastructure of compassionate care to ensure a decent quality of life for our beloved elders and our future selves.”—Steve Silberman, New York Times bestselling author of NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

“Dementia is the defining disease of our era. Powell invites us to imagine a brighter way forward. Dementia Reimagined succeeds on many levels—it is informative and insightful, historically illuminating, scientifically accurate, socially savvy and so well written. The result is utterly engaging.”—Ira Byock, MD, author of The Four Things That Matter Most and Dying Well, Founder & Chief Medical Director, Institute for Human Caring, Providence St. Joseph Health

“In this effective demystification of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, physician and bioethicist Powell reframes two debilitating cognitive disorders…. Throughout this insightful book, the author addresses the issues facing dementia victims and their caregivers with the kind of compassion and dignity everyone deserves at the end of life. A potent hybrid of medical history/journal and memoir.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Eye-opening…. a good start toward reimagining this devastating disease.”—Library Journal

“With candor and humor, Tia Powell examines all aspects of dementia: its history, treatment, and most importantly, how to care for people as they struggle to maintain dignity and autonomy. I recommend this book to anyone with a family or friend with dementia.”—Laurie G. Jacobs, MD, President, American Geriatrics Society and Chair of Medicine at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall

“Essential reading for anyone who cares for or about a person with dementia, treats a person with dementia, or is concerned about their own risk of dementia. Powell skillfully traces the sometimes surprising, often tragic, history of this disease and explains the current state of science and medicine and how they interact with advocacy and public policy. This book gives us a vision for what a meaningful life with dementia can look like.”—Carol Levine, Director, Families and Health Care Project, United Hospital Fund; author of Navigating Your Later Years for Dummies

“For all us baby boomers and our children joking about senior moments, it turns out that a lot of people living with dementia are actually having a hell of a good time. Read this book. Accepting what is and making the best of it requires a little planning, but the payoff in joy in the moment is huge.”—Diane E. Meier, MD, Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care

“Beautiful and powerful. Dr. Powell has somehow achieved that magical and difficult balancing act of being both informative and deeply personal at the same time. So many people will be touched deeply by this book, and many will think very hard (and much more knowledgeably) about what they want, for themselves or their family member, when faced with dementia. It will go to the top of my list of books I recommend to families when they ask me what to read, and I will plead that my colleagues to read it, too.”—Henry L. Paulson, MD, PhD, Lucile Groff Professor of Neurology for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders in the Department of Neurology, University of Michigan