Wandering Explorers

Description

Wandering Explorers is a guide for families who are making the lengthy and agonizing journey through the course of a loved one’s dementia. The title itself reminds us of the devastation that occurs in the brain - leading to wandering and confusion. And yet, there remains a curious human drive to explore and find purpose of life. Understanding this duality in dementia patients turns what is otherwise an apathetic family tragedy into a meaningful terminal event. This book is written in easy to understand terms and describes a multitude of aspects of brain disease including the many types of dementia, medical issues, drugs, behavioral management and the severe social consequences of this disease.

This book is unique not only because of its concise nature but that it is essentially a compilation of all the common questions our practice has been asked over the years. It provides answers about what to expect in the various stages of dementia, how the diagnosis is made, and proper treatments relative to the stage of disease. Wandering Explorers does not provide any false hope. It is made clear that this is a fatal neurologic disease where end of life preparation needs to be dealt with head on.

But Wandering Explorers takes a family to another level by providing information about realities of elder care you will not find in any other book. Dispelled, is the myth propagated by “Big Pharma” and the academic community over emphasizing the prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in the face of the normal aging process. This has side tracked the geriatric medicine community onto CNN waiting for a cure that will never come just as sure as people will keep getting old. Meanwhile companies get rich and professors who don’t actually treat dementia patients get famous. And there’s the popular and inappropriate use of anxiety drugs to calm agitation in confused patients or the appropriate use of antipsychotics in the elderly despite the FDA warning against them. These are some of the eye openers you will find in this book. With this knowledge a family can better understand actual mechanisms of disease, make proper treatment decisions, and even begin their own personal brain health programs.

About the Author

Douglas Wornell, MD is a geriatric psychiatrist with a large practice in the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington State, USA. He was born in 1955 in Tacoma and has lived throughout the United States. Dr. Wornell got his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of Puget Sound and his medical degree at the University of Miami. He did his internship in general surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his residency in psychiatry at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York City.

Dr. Wornell lived in New York City for 13 years, eventually becoming the Director of Psychiatric Emergency Services for St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital Center and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

He is now back home in Washington State and is the Medical Director of the Behavioral Wellness Center at Auburn Regional Medical Center. He has participated in the treatment of over twenty thousand dementia patients in the past ten years. Additionally he is the Medical Director of Wornell Psychiatry and Associates, a geriatric and neurological psychiatry consultative service covering over 2000 long term care patients. He has given over 200 presentations on geriatric psychiatry.

Dr. Wornell does prefer to be called Doug. He lives on a small farm on Fox Island in the Puget Sound where he, his wife Michelle, and two daughters raise their own organic beef and poultry. He is an eagle scout, an avid skier, plays jazz piano, paints and has written 6 screenplays. Dr. Wornell is a commercial flight instructor and floatplane charter pilot….when he finds the time.