Home Health Books

This is exactly the book my family needed. Reading "Arnie and his School Tools" to my children made them feel "normal". Giving it to the teachers to read to the class was the perfect start to improved classroom behavior. The teachers suddenly "got it", and the students who saw behaviors in themselves wanted Arnie's tools, too. The children who didn't understand why the Arnies in class needed to move suddenly became more empathetic.

A very powerful experience. A book I intend to give to each of my children's teachers at the beginning of every school year.

Jennifer Veenendall has done an amazing job at creating a wonderful hard covered cleverly illustrated book. I would highly recommend this for teachers who have students with autism integrated into their classroom. The book would educate typical peers on autism and the tools kids with autism find useful. The wonderful illustration would catch the eye of any young reader while teaching them valuable lessons about their peers with autism. Also, parents can share this with their childdren who have autism or sensory processing disorders to provide them a character whom they will understand and enjoy.

This would be a terrific gift for any lower elementary school teacher.

Joanna Keating-Velasco, Author and Instructional Aide, A Is for Autism F Is for Friend: A Kid's Book for Making Friends with a Child Who Has Autism

Written and illustrated by school-based occupational therapist Jennifer Veenendall, Arnie and His School Tools: Simple Sensory Solutions That Build Success is a children's picturebook about Arnie, a young boy with sensory modulation difficulties - that is, he's a "mover". His body needs to move, and his hands need to be busy, which makes it hard to sit still in school and pay attention to his teachers! What is a naturally restless boy to do? Fortunately, his parents and teachers instruct him in simple helpful strategies, including fidgets, chewy pencil toppers, earplugs, headphones, ball cushions, weighted vests, and more, as well as the use of natural physical movement to help keep his body calm and enable his mind to focus. Arnie and His School Tools is no ordinary picturebook; it's also a useful teaching aid for occupational therapists, teachers, and parents helping elementary children understand helpful basic sensory tools. "Sometimes I jump on our mini-trampoline, and at other times I jump and crash into our couch pillows. All these things help calm my body and my mind so I can get my homework done." Suggested discussion questions, a list of resources for children and parents, and helpful websites round out this enthusiastically recommended picturebook, especially for public and elementary school libraries.

Adorable Photographs of Our Baby: Meaningful, Mind Stimulating Activities and More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones, and Involved Professionals
This book gives the caregiver practical advice and hope. This book shows you that sitations can be very different, but treating your loved one or friend with dementia as a person will go a long way to making things tolerable and even enjoyable. There is good in every situation. This book shows you how to find it.
by Susan Berg author of Adorable Photographs of Our Baby-Meaningful More for the Memory Challenged, Their Loved Ones, and Involved Professionals, a book for those with dementia and an excellent resource for caregivers and healthcare professionals.

This book is written in a manner that provides both informative reading and compasionate insight into the world of caring for a loved one with dementia. It gives hope to those who walk this lonely road that there is help available and strength to be found.

The Art of Dementia Care speaks not only to the mind, but to the heart and soul of its readers. It inspires and empowers caregivers by illuminating the limitless possibilities that truly exist when we choose the relationship model of care. Kuhn and Verity clearly illustrate how everyday challenges in caregiving can evolve into opportunities that celebrate residual abilities, and honor and uphold the dignity of persons with dementia. Through simple, practical and thoughtful examples, the Art of Dementia Care awakens its readers to the powerful realization "that you hold the key to the quality of someone else's life". Imagine a world where we all shared this conviction.

This is an awesome book to include in any first aid kit. I run my own outdoor adventure business and typically include this book in all of my first aid kits. It is concise and easy to understand, not to mention an invaluable reference in the backcountry.

Backcountry First Aid is an excellent choice for a small manual or compendium about first aid treatments when you are in the outdoors. It is four inches by five and a half, and 120 pages long, so it will fit in a first aid kit or bag. The back cover has an "Action Index" that refers you to the pages for 47 different conditions or accidents. Topics like Bites and Stings, hypothermia, shock, water disinfection, etc, etc. The topics are covered very well - succinct and as comprehensive as you could hope for in a portable manual.

Of course it pays to read the manual before heading out, and in fact is valuable for anyone who wants to be ready for an accident or sudden sickness, whether in the wilderness, driving to work, or in your backyard.

Highly recommended.

This is an easy to read nuts and bolts manual for wilderness medicine. Pictures and step by step instructions are easy to follow. The book is small and can pack easily and lightly.

I also made several recipes from the cookbook within the first week, and my entire family was impressed with the results. The food was easy to prepare and turned out tasting fantastic. The fact that it's healthy is a great bonus. In fact, it tastes too good to be healthy.

I just bought this book a few days ago, and I've already prepared several recipes. They were terrific! The recipes are easy to follow, and most do not contain expensive or hard to find ingredients. Each recipe also includes a nutritional breakdown of calories, fat, cholesterol, sodium, fiber and protein. This book is a must have for health conscious cooks!

I have too many cookbooks! This one is the one I go to most often. Nearly all of the recipes are so tasty and easy! The cornflake breading isn't so great, but otherwise, ingredients are easy to come by! Lot's of pictures make this book even nicer. One of my favorites is the Turkey Marsala.

I have no appropriate adjective that describes how happy and grateful I am (as well as my in-laws) upon reading this book. We are sure that anybody who reads this book will find it so simple and easy to understand. When applied you will be blessed with minimized trips to the doctor. How I wish I'd read this earlier so I would not have spent and worried about my husband's dry skin condition. Anyway I'll lend this book to my friends and relatives to help them too.

Believe me these secrets work. Teh foods we need to eat-seasonings we use can prolong life, exercising, all help. I find every paragraph important and needful. Before trying these remedies, I felt listless, tired, nervous, swelling legs & feet. Natural Healing Secrets has caused all this to change. I'd had two slight strokes, before I decided I'd better stop and listen to Proven Remedies. If we go by the book, I believe we not only live longer but be healthful and "jolly" feel good.

In the past year my family has spent well over $600 which could have been saved had I known about this book sooner! My husband's dry, cracked feet were a real problem until I found the solution for healing them in this book. My son suffered terribly from allergies until I read how to "attack the menace in his bed" and "find the solution in his bottom drawer" to his stuffed-up nose. My daughter and I are losing weight eating the foods suggested, and I no longer endure severe bouts of hiccups. This book is "just what the doctor ordered" and goes with me everywhere as a reference.

The author's extensive experience makes this an outstanding resource that provides the guided direction needed to give traumatized children the opportunity to find relief from the terrors of their traumas. A must for all mental health professionals who work with traumatized children. Readers in general will find the more than 90 drawings by children from violent homes both fascinating and poignant. Author presents the use of art therapy with clarity and simplicity,so that therapists can immediately learn the use of this tool in their work with children who have been abused.

This text offers a solid framework for working with children who have been exposed to violence and who need to ventilate their concerns in a safe and supportive environment. With clinical skill and masterful teaching, Cathy Malchiodi provides an instructive manual that offers clear and informative information on how drawings can be used to help children overcome their negative life experiences. A significant contribution to the mental health field.

This book offers extensive knowledge of both the children's perspectives of their home life and shelter life. Working with this population is trying at best, one never knows if the mother is going back; because of this children learn to cope in ways that are mostly nonverbal. They've learned to stay quiet for the sake of family. Cathy Malchiodi explores this silence; in ways that, only art and other expressive therapies can offer. This book offers insight for new and experienced therapist who are working with this population.

My Sister and I both owned this book and read it to each other over the phone (we live in different towns) so that we could make sure we were both viewing our Mother's death in the same way. I was actually caring for her, but she was very involved with my endless decisions I had to make. That was very helpful in showing me I wasn't alone.

Now, unfortunately, I have to use it again because my dear Sister is dying. I have recommended this book to her 6 children who will be caring for her. This guide will help them as it did me, when they have a question in the middle of the night, or on the weekend when they can't reach the doctor. I know I would have made it without this book, but it sure made my life better!

This extremely comprehensive handbook "traces the sequence of events common to a life-threatening illness and examines the innumerable concerns and crises that arise along the way." Caring for the seriously ill has not been a concern for several years. High technology, new drugs, and caregiving organizations have taken this burden off of the loved ones of those whose life is being threatened. In the early part of the century, families knew what had to be done and took care of the sick in their homes. They made do with what they had, rearranged rooms and furniture, and tried to make life as comfortable as possible for those who were seriously sick. With the AIDS epidemic, taking care of the seriously ill at home has made a come back because no one wanted to deal with an individual who had such a misunderstood malady. A large majority of these individuals did not have the ways and means to be able to afford any other kind of care except what could be given by the loved ones around them. This remarkable book is for those people who are faced with taking care of someone they love. These individuals become advocates for the sick person. "the term advocate sounds more daunting than it really is. Simply, an advocate is the person who looks out for the patient's best interests and sees to it that his or her needs are met."

Part one, "Caring for the Sick," provides useful information that will be of initial importance to anyone faced with caring for someone seriously ill. The 11 chapters cover: "The Hospital and the Medical Team: Who's Who and What's What," "Dealing with the Doctors," "The Everyday Angel's Cram Course in Essential Nursing Skills, 101," "Matters of the Heart," "Mustering the Troops," "The Caregiver as Consumer Activist," "Care for the Caregivers," "Paying the Bills," "Preparing for the Worst," "Journey's End," and "Aftermath." The second part, "The Everyday's Angel's Cram Course in Adult Medicine," covers 9 illness that affect a large number of people: cancer, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular stroke or traumatic brain injury, emphysema and chronic bronchitis, diabetes, AIDS/HIV, liver disease, kidney disease, and progressive neurological disease. Each chapter describes the disease, provides symptoms, treatment regimens, complications, what can be done, and much more, ending with recommended readings.

The three appendices are useful resources: "Recommended Resources," "Miscellaneous Resources," and "For Referrals to Home Health Care, Hospice Care, Long-Term Care, Adult Day Care, Respite Care, and Rehabilitation Facilities." This is one of the best books available on caring for the seriously ill and should be available to anyone who has the responsibility of doing the caring. It is a highly recommended book for all public, academic, and medical libraries.

As a professional in the medical field and as a lay person, I found this to be the most educational, practical and comforting book I have read on this subject. This book contains information, resources and references for every aspect of caring for the seriously ill. The layout is organized and finding topics is effortless. Everyone should have this book, preferably before they need it. This book touched my heart and my mind.

The real deal! Easy to follow. Everyone interested in Pilates should get this, original!

Thank you,

Cindy Connor

I am a new Pilates Instructor and this book has given me a few new moves and good progressions and different levels.

After buying all the other Pilates books, I finally found this one: this is the book you want. It includes particularly clear photos and descriptions of every exercise, sufficient to actually learn them. It includes ultra-precise directions for the crucial details (that are glossed over in other books which tell you that you can only learn everything by taking a dozen $90/hr lessons from a local studio). It includes all and only the mat exercises, so you don't need any equipment--at all. The exercises and sequence really are extremely faithful to Joseph Pilates's own illustrated book of 50 years ago A Pilates' Primer : The Millennium Edition, but the photos and detailed descriptions in this new book are infinitely superior; many other "Pilates" books (and even more the DVDs) introduce a lot of idiosyncratic variations. Particularly notable is an added series of "warm-up" exercises which can be a boot-strap to gain the initial strength needed for the beginner's exercises, and those in turn lead to intermediate and advanced forms which can be very challenging. The extreme attention to detail in the hundreds of photos and meticulous descriptions is combined with very clear presentation and arrangement. This is the book to begin with, and it's really the only one you'll need.

I was fortunate enough to be able to preview this moving story of Anders and Sanna's battle with Lupus (aka "Dr. Disease"). But it's not just a medical recounting... far from it. The heart of this book lies in the personal battles the pair face with courage and dignity as *together* they fight this condition and the effects it has on not only Sanna's health, but their releationship, their home, and at rare times, their love. Beautiful and thought-provoking. I highly recommend this for not only those struggling with a partner or family member's medical condition, but also for those whom wish to gain insight into what the "other" person goes through as they watch the person they love in their struggles. Isn't there a six-star option on this thing?

I really enjoyed the book and finished it the day it came in the mail. It sounds like Sanna is the love of the author's life. And I not only learned about how to cope with a loved one's disease, but I felt inspired by the love story behind the story of the illness. I also appreciated the many humorous moments.

This book lives up to its subtitle, offering useful advice to partners faced with a life (and relationship) changing illness. With humor,compassion and common sense, the author addresses the issues that confront a couple when a third party,whom he calls "Dr. Disease" enters the picture. According to the introduction, this book began as a journal the author kept after his fiancee was diagnosed with Lupus. Using examples from their experience, he offers practical advice for dealing with the difficulties that any illness inevitably brings. His wry humor keeps the tone light and balanced, and he offers both good advice and hope to those facing a similar challenge. Since it is their personal story, it is also a touching tribute to the power of love.

Guy Seaton's book is a compassionate, complete review of the situation in America's nursing homes.
Replete with case histories and with analyses of "what we are doing wrong", the book casts a worrying light on the general landscape, yet offers valid solutions for people with aging parents on how to choose a humane nursing home.

Mr. Seaton brings us the bad news that America's nursing homes are dismal places in which to live and to work. He does so by revealing just enough of his own story, by using the device of the case study to make various points, and by structuring both the case studies and the chapters themselves so that the reader is never overwhelmed and always intrigued. His chapter "The Healthcare Army" describes the various players in the average nursing home, and gives the audience a slight taste of their daily misery. For the social scientist and the concerned relative alike, this chapter could serve as an organizational guide to direct patient advocacy.
Like its close relative, the personal trauma memoir, institutional critiques such as this one are about as exciting as a case of mild indigestion. That may be because the big subjects are inherently difficult to capture in prose. The existence of an outrage does not a call to action make. There are, for example, many Holocaust narratives, but there is only one Night. In this terrifying little book, Elie Wiesel merely tells the story of his own experience, without many generalizations. The result is economical, moving, and unadorned- and this book remains unsurpassed as a tale of horror, not because the experience is unique, but because the telling of the experience is so well crafted. Mr. Seaton's book, while describing a very different situation in another genre, owes its force to the craft and skill of the author. As much as he has to say, the ultimate grace of this book is that readers will have their own comments on fate of our elders in nursing homes.
I have only one quibble with Mr. Seaton. Our elders and their caregivers are not in the midst of a "crisis". A stronger word- "atrocity" for instance- seems appropriate here. Our hyperbole driven society seems to have a crisis a minute. From the celebrity escapade to the latest international massacre, everything clamors for attention. Many years from now, our children will question us about our integrity with the benefit of hindsight. History will call us to task for one or two "crises", and my bets are on the question of our response to the AIDS pandemic, and our ... treatment of the elderly. Read this book- so that when your grandchildren ask what you did and why, you will not be caught with the ... excuse of "We did not know.".
M. Riggs MD, eBook Reviews Weekly

The Crisis In America's Nursing Homes: What Are We Doing Wrong? by health care professional and nursing home owner Guy Seaton is a sober, serious, informed and informative look at a severe health care crisis facing our aging nation. Written by an experienced and thoughtful author who first started working in nursing homes more than three decades ago, The Crisis In America's Nursing Homes expertly surveys the manifold shortfalls of Medicare and Medicaid, and addresses the urgent social policy question as to why things in nursing homes are in such bad shape and what can be done about it. The Crisis In America's Nursing Homes is very highly recommended reading for health care activists, nursing home reform advocates, governmental policy makers, and anyone concerned about the quality of care they or their loved ones can expect for a nursing home environment.