Living in the Moment A Guide to Overcoming Challenges and Finding Moments of Joy in Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias

Like a What to Expect When You're Expecting for dementia, Living in the Moment offers a comprehensive, easy-to-follow guide to understanding Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases, and what to do next. For caregivers and patients alike, renowned geriatrician Dr. Elizabeth Landsverk offers a path for patients to live a healthy and full life with dementia.

A loved one’s dementia diagnosis can leave you feeling scared and overwhelmed. But you are not alone. Dr. Elizabeth Landsverk, founder of ElderConsult Geriatric Medicine, has led thousands of patients through a brain disease diagnosis, equipping them with knowledge, tools, and support to help them live happy and engaged lives. She shares her expertise in this practical reference that offers helpful explanations, advice, and guidance through an often confusing and challenging new landscape. 

Dr. Landsverk’s advice covers understanding the disease itself to managing a patient’s aggression and paranoia, from protecting against elder abuse to creating a long-range plan for patients and caregivers that includes home care, assisted living, and hospice care.  LIVING IN THE MOMENT promises a plan that will minimize medication, treat pain, and relieve agitation, without falling back on standard medical approaches.

Here is everything you need to know about caring for your loved one and making his or her life the best possible, starting now. You’ll learn:


*           How to recognize the earliest dementia changes

• How to create a plan of action for today—and tomorrow—that will help to manage this new normal
• Innovative new activities, and holistic interventions that can slow the progression of dementia

• Comprehensive information on both prescription and OTC medications that can help or hurt dementia patients

• Dealing with day-to-day challenges, from staying mobile to overcoming agitation and aggression without resorting to sedation

• A guide to understanding powerful medications that are often prescribed, and do not work
• How to relieve pain and calm agitation – without sedation or drugs
• How to keep your vulnerable loved one safe and secure—both physically and financially

• How and where to get help, including online support groups, home health care agencies, care managers, neuropsychologists, communities and day programs for people with dementia, and government agencies

• Tips on keeping your loved one at home versus placement

Dr. Landsverk demystifies the ins and outs of dementia, explaining what it is and what it’s not, making sure you and your loved one will be ready to address whatever develops and maintain quality of life. Uniquely, Living in the Moment will transform how you think about dementia, providing comfort and support for the best life possible—at any stage.

Elizabeth Landsverk, MD is the founder of ElderConsult Geriatric Medicine, a practice specializing in house calls and in-person meetings with elders with dementia and their families. As a geriatrician, Dr. Landsverk collaborates with physicians throughout the San Francisco Bay Area to address challenging medical and behavioral issues facing older patients and their families. Utilizing a variety of techniques, she helps to alleviate pain, agitation, and discomfort for elders, improving their quality of life.

Dr. Landsverk is board-certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, and Palliative Care Medicine. In addition to her work with patients, Dr. Landsverk is an Adjunct Clinical Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and serves as Medical Director for two dementia communities in Belmont and Redwood City, California. Her advice on elder care has been featured in the Chicago Tribune, The Tampa Bay Times, Today’s Geriatric Medicine, The Street, and Grandparents.com, among others. She also recently launched an online community on her website to help address the challenging elder care issues families face nationwide. Previously, Dr. Landsverk taught at University of California San Francisco, one of the top ten medical research centers nationwide, and served as a hospice care director 7 and as a consultant for the San Francisco Abuse Forensics Center. Dr. Landsverk is a graduate of Stanford University, studied geriatrics in a fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, one of the world’s leading centers for research on treating people as they age, and trained at Cambridge Hospital, Harvard University. She lives in Burlingame, California, with her family. Visit her online at ElderConsult.com.