Keep in Touch Even When Living Apart

Chapter 7: Keeping In Touch Even when Living Apart

Overview:

• Advice on choosing a home that will help the carer to stay in contact with the person with Alzheimer’s disease
• Guidance on how to keep in touch from a distance and still meet the needs of the person with Alzheimer’s
• Descriptions of how to make the most of visits
• Accounts from the author’s own personal experience with her mother who had Alzheimer’s

Description:

This chapter considers some of the ways of managing to keep in touch when the carer is living apart from the person who has Alzheimer’s disease. Two typical situations are examined. The first, is when the other person is living in some form of residential care, and the other situation is when the carer is absent for an extended period of time, whether this is due to the carer being away on a visit or to them living in a different town, country, etc. Both of these are potential threats to keep in touch with the person for whom the carer wishes to care for. However, this chapter examines the various ways of counteracting these threats.

Topics:

• Choosing a home that will help you to keep in touch
  • Closeness and accessibility are not the only criteria
  • The physical and social environment
  • Providing for individual needs
  • What happens when you drop in unexpectedly?
• Keeping in touch from a distance
  • Tangible signs of our affection
  • Making the most of visits

Jane Crisp

Dr Jane Crisp has retired recently as a lecturer in communication, media studies and women’s studies at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. She now holds an honorary position there as Adjunct Senior Lecturer. When Jane’s mother, who lived in New Zealand, was diagnosed with dementia Jane found her professional studies of great help in her efforts to keep in touch. Since 1990 Jane has been studying the language of people who are dementing and working out strategies for making sense of the way they speak. She has given talks on this work, and had articles published, both in Australia and overseas. 

Jane has spent much time in France, meeting and exchanging ideas with researchers and carers involved with people who are dementing, and visiting specialised care units. She is married, with a son and a brand new granddaughter.

Professional Reviews: