Mutual Spirituality Awaits Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers

Dementia presents major challenges to faith, both for persons with dementia and for their caregivers. Jane Marie Thibault and Richard L. Morgan present a realistic picture of dementia, and they encourage us to see caregiving and receiving as opportunities to connect, respect, love, and grow spiritually. End Quote

Nashville, TN (1888PressRelease) October 08, 2009 - Even if a person with dementia can only greet family members or old friends with a silent stare of non-recognition, authors Jane Marie Thibault and Richard L. Morgan say both the caregiver and care receiver still can travel together along a mutual spiritual pathway.

In their new book, No Act of Love Is Ever Wasted: The Spirituality of Caring for Persons with Dementia, Thibault and Morgan draw upon decades of personal experiences to describe how both the caregiver and receiver can benefit from their relationship.

"We want to affirm that the care giving is not in vain," says Thibault, a clinical gerontologist and a clinical professor of Family and Geriatric Medicine at University of Louisville since 1981. "Whatever the caregiver does, the act of love for a person with dementia is never an action that is meaningless."

The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, although dementia is a general term that includes many diseases with similar symptoms of progressive mental decline but different causes. By 2010, an estimated 35.6 million people worldwide will be living with dementia, according to Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI), the umbrella organization of Alzheimer associations around the world. The ADI's recently released World Alzheimer Report for 2009 predicts the number will nearly double every 20 years, to 65.7 million in 2030, and 115.4 million in 2050.

"People with Alzheimer's are more than body, brain or breath," says Morgan, a retired chaplain and professor who has pursued a ministry for persons with dementia for 30 years. "They are souls and they are spirits, and therefore, you can communicate with them that way, even though their minds may be ravaged by the disease, and even though their bodies are wasting away."

The book by Thibault, who has a Ph.D. in clinical gerontology, and Morgan, who holds three seminary degrees including a Ph.D. in early Christian history, contains information about the various types of dementia and specific suggestions to help provide spiritual care for persons with dementia and their caregivers. The authors also provide tips for leading support groups and worship services for persons with dementia.

Family members, chaplains, and activity directors and nurses in memory care units who deal with dementia every day yearn for the insights in No Act of Love Is Ever Wasted, Morgan says. "I hate to say this, but unfortunately clergy are not yet on board when it comes to dealing with dementia. Clergy are busy, and I understand that this is not a priority. Sometimes it is not just denial, but because they are not trained by the seminaries about how to deal with parishioners with dementia."

Caring for those with dementia presents a major faith challenge, Thibault and Morgan write. "It tests whether we can trust that God will take care of us if we are ever in the same situation," they say in the book. "It tests whether we can love unselfishly, without asking for any love back for ourselves. It also tests whether we can love lavishly without expecting anything in return, without paying attention to the cost, knowing that no act of love is ever wasted."

In addition to No Act of Love Is Ever Wasted, Thibault is author of: 10 Gospel Promises for Later Life and A Deepening Love Affair: The Gift of God in Later Life.

Morgan has authored 14 books, including Settling In: My First Year in a Retirement Community and Remembering Your Story: Creating Your Own Spiritual Autobiography.

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