Customer Reviews
one size can't fit all - By: wyrwirm, 05 Oct 2008 
The claims made for this book are far too wide & the best bits of the approach are not new. For instance it is now widely known that you should not argue with someone with dementia who has become lostin time & space, but "go with the flow". (Reorientation only worksin the early stages, & with great respect & tact). This approach will not workin later stages, as seenin the documentary Malcolm & Barbara. This approach will not prevent people who survive eventually having severe brain damage with little ability to respond. By all means let's throw away the stressful attempts to drag someone into our world. And let's know the person well so that we can communicate for as long as possible. But I am sad that the expectations aroused by this book are liable to disappointment. Of course people bying this book are probably desperate for something that they think is going to be a magic wand. I wish it were true. I have personal experience of looking after people with dementia. There is a positive side to care, but this book is not enough: you can't just impose a solution.
Very Helpful - By: David Pugsley, 26 Sep 2008 
I found this short book very helpful & provided me with some tools that extended the work I was already doing with my Mum who suffers from the early stages of dementia. It doesn't provide all the answers & how could it but I would recommend it as part of a wider discovery around the issue.
An unsettling approach - By: Alba, 21 Sep 2008 I found this book unsettlingin its view,in its approach, &in its insistence that this is the One True Way to 'handle' dementia patients. I didn't like the infantilising of those sufferers (notablyin its insistence that the programme, which works by means of the carer disappearing into the Looking Glass World of the demented-loved-one & creating & recreating one core situation that meant something to themin the past - for instance by playing along with the idea that they are all workingin an office together & it's 1955). I didn't like the idea that this infantilising should commence immediately on diagnosis. I didn't like the idea that this Primary Theme should be supplemented by a Health Theme so that an illness or disability from the past could be invoked to help bring the ill person back down to earth on occasion, from the heights of this shared fantasy. I didn't like the idea that everybody who comes into contact with the ill person should also be drawn into the play acting. I didn't like the dogmatic instructions about what must always & never be done. Questions must never be asked, it says, of the demented person, ever. This seems to me wrong & patronising.
The other thing that must be said is that though this book is keen on branding its approach (and is very keen on acronyms) this is a system that many carers, such as myself, have tried before. We have all of us spent time 'through the looking glass' with our loved ones & immersed ourselvesin their world & their altered perceptions. It doesn't always work. The ill person can still be unhappy, hostile, confused, violent, as I know from experience.
The Alzheimer's Society gave this book a poor review & shares some of these concerns, I notice.
It is many years since I have taken a work book to read in bed, and even longer since I have subsequently dreamt about it! - By: East Training Consultancy Ltd, 12 Sep 2008 
As a consultant & trainer working with housing staff, many of whom struggle to work effectively with clients with dementia, I devoured this book with relish, & have droned on endlessly to friends & colleagues about the Specal approach ever since. It challenges many of the professional assumptions about how we relate & communicate with people with dementia, & offers cogent argument for understanding & entering into their reality instead of attempting to drag them into ours.
This book is interesting, practical, well written, & most importantly for me, extremely compassionate. In an ideal world this book would be issued as essential reading to all housing & care staff working with older people.
brilliant - By: Ann Martin, 03 Sep 2008 I got the book yesterdy & read it late into the night. I would never have believed that I would find a book on this subject un-putdownable! I can see so much of my motherin Dorothy's case, & I've been doing all the wrong things. This book will be my guide from now on. And what a wondeful personPenny is!
