Montessori for Elder and Dementia Care

100 pages
By Jennifer A. Brush

Written by an international Montessori and dementia expert, this indispensable guide to Montessori for elders makes it possible for any care provider to understand and implement this innovative approach to aging.

Jennifer Brush shows care communities how to create and sustain a team that integrates the Montessori philosophy throughout daily life and as a result, intensely enhances person-centered care. Based on her years as a researcher, clinician and educator, Brush clearly explains the concepts behind this revolutionary approach, how to create a prepared environment, and how to increase levels of life engagement for older adults.

Packed with helpful forms, activity directions and numerous examples, this thorough guide is essential if you want to implement the Montessori philosophy with elders or people living with dementia.

Available in 2020 from Health Professions Press

© 2020 Jennifer Brush

Getting Started with Montessori
Volume 2: It Takes a Team
Empowering Care Partners to Implement Montessori for Aging and Dementia

32 pages
By Brush & Douglas

The companion to Volume 1, this guide is designed to help care partners work through the stages of change as you implement Montessori in your community. Packed with practical suggestions to support care partner buy-in, this guide highlights key strategies for community leaders. As a special bonus, this guide also outlines supply lists and step-by-step instructions to engage older adults in meaningful activities such as metal insets, embroidery and food preparation. It takes a team, so let’s get started!

For only $12.99 (free shipping), get the tips you need to ensure success with your program.

© 2017 Brush & Douglas

Getting Started with Montessori
Volume 1: Practical Life Activities for Older Adults

40 pages
By Brush & Norris

Take the first step in transforming your elder care community to an environment of joy and purpose.

Getting Started with Montessori Volume 1 gives you the step by step directions and supply lists you’ll need to successfully implement 10 Practical Life activities with older adults and people living with dementia. This little gem of a guide is jam packed with tips for creating a prepared environment, educating staff, incorporating Montessori into personal care, and creating visual cues. It’s just what you need to get your Montessori program started!

For only $12.99 (free shipping), get the basic tips you need to get your program underway.

© 2017 Brush & Norris

A Day on the Wind Seeker

By Rita Akins with Jennifer Brush

An interactive read-aloud book for people with dementia featuring large print and colorful, high-contrast illustration. Collaboratively created by a talented illustrator, a Montessori teacher and a dementia care expert.

Emma has dreamed of sailing since her childhood. She and her grandfather, Papa Jack, worked hard to restore an old sloop. Now the day has come for a first sail. Will Emma be ready to sail the Wind Seeker?

This engaging story about the special relationship enjoyed by a grandfather and granddaughter was created especially for and tested with people living with cognitive impairment.

The story features:

• Large print text
• Colorful, high-contrast illustrations
• A question at the end of each page to encourage conversation

The book was designed to be used in several different ways:

• A person with dementia can read the story to a small group of peers. He or she can present the question at the end of each page for group discussion.
• A person with dementia can read the story to a child or a family member and reminisce about similar experiences.
• A care partner can read the story aloud to a person with dementia and use the question at the end of each page to inspire discussion.
• A person with dementia can read the story alone, either silently or aloud. Most enjoy reading the story aloud.

Reading aloud is a preserved ability in dementia and many individuals, even those in the later stage of the disease, enjoy reading to others. With short, illustrated stories designed to accommodate their reading needs, people with dementia can participate with ease and enjoyment in the reading experience. — Jennifer Brush, M.A., CCC/SLP

$15.95 | https://montessori-images.com
Soft cover, durable #80 paper
Dimensions: 8.5 x 11; 12 pages of text (verso); 12 pages of illustration (recto)

© 2017 Brush

I Care: A Handbook for Care Partners
 of People with Dementia


by Jennifer Brush and Kerry Mills

I Care is a gold medal winner in the healthcare book category in the 23rd annual National Mature Media Awards Program and an Award-Winning Finalist in the “Health: Aging/50+” category of the 2014 USA Best Book Awards.  This book is currently handed out by the Cleveland Clinic Euclid Hospital, Geriatric Assessment Program as recommended reading for patients and families who have recently received a diagnosis of dementia.

This award winning book will both inspire and educate care partners of people with Alzheimer’s disease to make the most of each day! Care partners will see their loved one as a whole person with strengths and abilities, which will promote greater independence and self-sufficiency for the person with dementia.

I Care covers:

• Minimizing the care partner’s fears, frustrations, and stress
• Managing changes in communication, memory loss and behavior using best care techniques
• Making the home safe and supportive
• Understanding changes in brain function
• Addressing financial and legal issues
• And much more…

I Care is available for purchase here on the website.
We offer the same low pricing as and free shipping as Amazon, so please support the authors and make your book purchase here.

Health professionals are talking about I Care:

“I Care is a comprehensive book that offers a greater understanding of how to manage the difficulties of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. I only wish this book was available when I was caring for my mother, Rita Hayworth, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.”

Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, 
President, Alzheimer’s Disease International

“I Care is just what the health care community has been waiting for to fill the void for people caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.”


Dr. Stephen Jones, Specialty Geriatric Medicine
, Greenwich Hospital

“With a world-wide, mounting population of persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, it’s exciting that a book is now available specifically to help caregivers navigate the difficulties encountered in caring for someone suffering with cognitive impairments. I Care offers essential and fundamental advice for best-care practices, but it also provides a sense of real hope that quality of life issues will not necessarily diminish when effective care management principles are adopted.”

Marc Wortmann, 
Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Disease International

Spaced Retrieval Step by Step
An Evidence-Based Memory Intervention


By Jeanette E. Benigas, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, 
Jennifer A. Brush, M.A., CCC-SLP, 
Gail Elliot BASc, M.A.

If you are looking for an effective way to support individuals with memory loss, this book will provide you with a fresh approach to Spaced Retrieval (SR). Now you can learn this innovative process step by step to assist people in learning the important information needed to improve independence, safety, and quality of life. Using this proven memory-training strategy allows people to learn and store important information so that, with practice, it can be easily accessed and retrieved.

This book includes:

• illustrative case studies
• forms for easy implementation (both in the book and as downloadable PDFs)
• visual cueing tools
• summary of evidence that supports effectiveness

Whether you have used SR techniques in the past or if you are new to this innovative approach to supporting memory you will find this book offers practical guidelines, tools, and a research review of how SR has developed over time.  Speech-language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, nurses, and healthcare and homecare professionals, and family members at all levels of care can use SR to bring more confidence, safety, and independence into the lives of people with memory loss and their care partners.  Learn more about SR by watching our free instructional video.

$32.99 | healthpropress.com/benigas
Stock #70460 | ISBN 978-1-938870-46-0 | 160 pages

Creative Connections in Dementia Care™

By Rev. Katie Norris and Jennifer Brush

This book was named a Silver Award Winner from the 2016 National Health Information Awards. The National Health Information Awards honor the nation’s best consumer health programs and materials.

Creativity is preserved in dementia long after other abilities are lost, so that making art provides rich opportunities for meaningful engagement for people with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Creative Connections in Dementia Care™ provides care partners with the knowledge and easy-to-follow steps they need to successfully implement art projects in a group or one-on-one setting—and no art experience is required!

Written for anyone who cares for a person with dementia—family members, friends, and professionals—this how-to manual is packed with guidance to help enhance communication, interactions, task breakdown, and problem-solving efforts while also encouraging the abilities of each participant.

People with dementia enjoy valuable benefits when they actively engage in a creative activity:

• stress is reduced
• memories can be accessed
• mood and self-esteem are elevated
• a sense of personal identity and achievement is experienced

To help create these opportunities, Creative Connections in Dementia Care™ provides 10 basic art project “recipes,” detailing supplies, instructions, and activity modifications, as well as colorful, step-by-step photographs that show how to demonstrate and lead the activity for the person with dementia. Each art activity is failure-free and does not require memory skills to complete.

Bring joy and a powerful sense of connection to the lives of people experiencing dementia with this one-of-a-kind guide!

“Creative Connections in Dementia Care™: Engaging Activities to Enhance Communication is one of the most informative and practical books on how to engage creatively with those living with dementia that I have run across; and I review a lot of books! I love how easy the book is to use. The boxes with punch lists of how’s and why’s, along with pictures that guide you, simplify the process and get a person excited about trying something new. The personal stories touch the heart. I wish this book would have been around when my mother had dementia.”

Lori La Bey, Founder of Alzheimer’s Speaks

> Purchase from www.healthpropress.com/product/creative-connections-in-dementia-care/

Environment and Communication Assessment Toolkit for Dementia Care (ECAT)

by Jennifer Brush, Margaret Calkins, Carrie Bruce and Jon Sanford
Health Professions Press (2012)

Finding simple solutions to improving the long term care environment. This evidence-based toolkit includes the tools you need to assess, intervene, and modify on an individualized basis to ensure the quality of life for people with dementia. In three easy-to-follow steps, the ECAT help you:

• Record activity performance deficits
• Evaluate the environment to identify barriers and problems
• Pinpoint individualized recommendations for intervention
• Reduce barriers to functioning

> Purchase from www.healthpropress.com/ECAT
> Purchase from www.whsmith.co.uk (UK)
> Purchase from www.fishpond.com.au (Australia)