We have many people to thank who have stood by us since we first began our work in Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care in the mid-1980s.
Our friends and colleagues at the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky deserve special acknowledgment. Dr. David Wekstein first brought us together as colleagues, and the center and its talented staff grew under the leadership of its late director Dr. William R. Markesbery. Other Sanders-Brown staff and alumni to thank include Dr. Deborah Danner, Robin Hamon, Dr. Linda Kuder, and Marie Smart.
Tonya Cox of Christian Care Communities has been a longtime friend and collaborator.
We thank the staff and volunteers at the Best Friends Day Center (Lexington, Kentucky) for their ongoing commitment to this outstanding model program. This award-winning adult day center was the birthplace of the Best Friends approach and remains an influential source of learning and inspiration.
Two chapters of the Alzheimer’s Association have provided a home and support for us in our work. The Greater Kentucky and Southern Indiana Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association was an early pioneer in adult day center care, notably the development of the national model program Helping Hand (now the Best Friends Center), and we thank all of the volunteers and talented staff who have worked with us in Kentucky, notably Claire Macfarlane, Marie Masters, Jane Owen, Margaret Patterson, and Ray Rector. The California Central Coast Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association encouraged and supported the work of David Troxel, and we thank this organization’s past and present committed staff and volunteers, notably Charlie Zimmer, Barbara Rose, Lol Sorensen, Elayne Brill, Dr. Erno Daniel, Dr. Robert Harbaugh, and Julian Dean.
Other notable supporters include Dr. Linda Hewitt, who provided guidance on sexuality and dementia, and Joanne Rader, who shared expertise on issues surrounding bathing. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation first funded us in our adult day center care work in Lexington, Kentucky; without its support, much of our work on Best Friends would not have occurred. Dr. William Stivelman of the Mary Oakley Foundation has supported our ideas with grants that have allowed our work to be translated into Spanish and for outreach into the Latino community. We also appreciate the support of the many friends we have met through Alzheimer’s Disease International, notably Dr. Nori Graham and Dr. Lilia Mendoza.
Our earnest appreciation goes to Anne Basye of Mount Vernon, Washington, who has ably facilitated Best Friends’ leap into social media by supporting and creating a website and Facebook page.
Finally we thank the team at HCI—Allison Janse, Kelly Maragni, Lori Golden, and Kim Weiss—for all their efforts in producing this revised edition. Special thanks to the team at Health Professions Press—Melissa Behm, Mary Magnus, and Julie Chávez—for their support and friendship.
—The Authors
To the many Best Friends Day Center volunteers in Lexington, Kentucky, who have exemplified the Best Friends approach since 1984, and to my husband, Wayne Bell, and our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, who have had to live with a nontraditional wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother in order for this book to be published.
—Virginia Bell
I thank my many old and new friends working in the field of dementia care and the families I have met who are traveling the Alzheimer’s journey. I also thank my partner, Ronald Spingarn, and my late parents, Fred and Dorothy Troxel, who cheered me on with unconditional love and support.
—David Troxel