Vaughn E. James - The Alzheimers Advisor: A Caregivers Guide to Dealing with the Tough Legal and Practical Issues

The current and projected statistics regarding the incidence and prevalence of Alzheimers disease (AD) and related dementias are staggering, as we increasingly become victims of our own wonderful success in employing advances in medical science to keep more people alive longer. However, raw statistics alone fail to convey the real impact and meaning of AD. Each case of the scourge represents an individual human story about a particular human beings life. In this book, attorney, law professor, and author Vaughn James beautifully illustrates for the readerthrough the rich and revealing narratives about his family and himself, as well as various hypothetical examples interspersed throughout the textthe adage generally attributed to pioneer health services researcher Ruth Roemer, Statistics are people with the tears removed.

AD is a multifaceted phenomenon. Each situation involves a somewhat unique trajectory, but the affected persons decline is ultimately inevitable and the final result the same. Adapting to this human tragedy is a life-changing process not only for the affected individual but for family, friends, and the larger society. The challenges that emerge present physical, mental, emotional, financial, ethical, and (the primary focus of this book) legal ramifications for all of the involved parties. The Alzheimers Advisor is not a self-help book for confronting these challenges with dignity and grace as much as a guide for getting help from the cadre of trained and compassionate professionals who have dedicated themselves to improving quality of life for people with AD and those who care for and about them.

Both victims and caregivers (professional and informal) need to maintain a combination of reality, reason, and hope. They need to be both strong and feeling. There is no magic formula for achieving the ideal mix, but this book should inspire readers to try to eliminate some of the uncertainty that is an inescapable part of AD by acting (not just contemplating) proactively and in a timely manner, especially concerning legal affairs. In the absence of purposeful planning assisted by competent multi-professional expertise and experience, important decisions get made through default mechanisms that may produce results inconsistent with the values and preferences of affected persons and their loved ones.

It is my fervent hope that one day in the not too distant future literature on this subject will become irrelevant to everyone except historians. As this book describes, significant ongoing scientific research is aimed at producing medical interventions to effectively treat and eventually prevent AD. The glimmers of success already apparent from these efforts will someday soon blossom into the creation of products that convert this biological abnormality with enormously adverse human consequences into a readily manageable inconvenience, if not a total relic of the past. Until that awaited day, though, we are fortunate to have this book and its wisdom.

Marshall B. Kapp, J.D., M.P.H.

Garwin Distinguished Professor of Law and Medicine

Southern Illinois University Schools of Law and Medicine