Handle with Care

A sensitive and loving story, Handle With Care is a sympathetic portrayal of the difficulties and trauma of caring for a parent suffering from the progressive deterioration of his or her mental facilities. Describing her mother's long, irreversible illness, Dorothy Brown candidly relates her feelings of shock, despair, and bewilderment and her later feelings of guilt, resentment, and sadness. More than just a personal account, this book is a valuable discussion of the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, the options for care and/or treatment, and the financial and legal issues. Ms. Brown stresses the need for early diagnosis and points out that "senility" (a convenient catch-all term) is hardly accurate and is often misleading, allowing one to accept as inevitable what may in fact be treatable. She also describes the findings of research that hold out hope for better diagnosis and more effective treatment in the future.