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Alive with Alzheimer's, a documentary photography book by Cathy Stein Greenblat, Ph.D.
My documentary photography, visual sociology project from the summer of 2001 at Silverado Senior Living, a superb assisted living community in Escondido, California for people with dementia, is now a book! Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common form of dementia, affects millions of aging seniors and their family members who serve as caregivers. The book reveals that high quality institutional care is possible, can bring about excellent results, and should not be considered a “last resort.” The possibilities of music therapy are highlighted in two chapters. I have also prepared also a traveling exhibition of some of the photographs, which has appeared at Alzheimer’s meetings, geriatric conferences, and other venues.
The German edition of the book, ALZHEIMERS UND LEBENSQUALITAT, was published in January 2006, to correspond with the opening of the three-year traveling exhibition around Germany of 28 of the photographs from the book.
New Web Site - May 2007 - www.cathygreenblat.com
I'm making another web site about the photographic work I've been doing since 2001, when I began working seriously in the photographic domain. In 2004 I began to work in color as well as black and white. It's taken me some time to learn about the different demands of color work, but I now have some results I'm happy about... and I hope you will like them, too.
You will find this work at www.cathygreenblat.com . The site is still under construction, but there are a number of images there already.
From the University of Chicago Press Catalog
Greenblat, Cathy Stein Alive with Alzheimer's. With an Afterword by Enid Rockwell, M.D. 128 p., 85 halftones. 8_1/2 x 8_3/4 2004
Cloth $27.50 0-226-30658-5 Spring 2004.
The confusion, losses, and devastation of Alzheimer's disease are familiar to the millions of Americans suffering from the disease and to their family members. Understandably, declining abilities and changing personal characteristics shape our picture of the disease, leading some to refer to the "double death" of Alzheimer's in which the sufferer drifts away long before his or her eventual physical end.
This small, tender volume of 85 photographs and accompanying discussion powerfully shows the limitations of this view. Cathy Stein Greenblat, an internationally respected sociologist and photographer, demonstrates in Alive with Alzheimer's that, while the ravages of the disease are real, Alzheimer's sufferers can do more than survive, they can thrive. Her images, interviews, and observations attest to the possibility of their being "alive" with Alzheimer's far beyond the expectations of the general public and even of many physicians with long experience with the disease.
Greenblat offers a new vision, taking us into a world of life-enhancing institutional care. Nursing homes and similar facilities don't have to be a last resort; as Greenblat shows, with a dedicated and experienced staff and an enriched environment (that includes respect, choices, pets, and music), extraordinary changes can be effected in Alzheimer's patients.
Alive with Alzheimer's, the first photographic book on the disease, offers hope and inspiration. Moreover, its vivid, impressive evidence that ongoing stimulation in a good institutional setting can sustain Alzheimer's patients at a far higher level than is generally believed has significant implications for personal and policy decisions.
Table of Contents 1. Facing Alzheimer's 2. Long Silence Where There Once Was Song 3. Filling the Silent Spaces 4. Bringing Back the Songs 5. Waves of Remembrance 6. A Window Opening Afterword: Fighting the Fear of Alzheimer's by Enid Rockwell, M.D. About Silverado Selected Bibliography Acknowledgments
Subjects:
* Art: Photography * Sociology: Social Gerontology * Medical Science * Social Work
The University of Chicago Press
Questions about this title? email sales@press.uchicago.edu
