How often do you allow a stranger in your bedroom when you aren’t fully dressed? Do you like it when random people you’ve never met walk into your bedroom while you’re in bed? And then try to touch you? I often ask these questions of my audience when I do presentations. They usually make people […]
I try to represent the diversity of individuals with dementia in my blog, but there’s a group that I’ve not discussed until this point…individuals with Down syndrome. As you may know, individuals with Down syndrome are living longer than they have in the past. Our society provides more services to assist them in living independent […]
I believe suffering to be a part of being human. It comes in many forms–physical, emotional, spiritual…and in my heart of hearts, I know we all experience it. Cancer causes suffering. Divorce causes suffering. Parenthood causes suffering. Death causes suffering, and maybe life itself causes suffering. I mean, if you haven’t suffered, are you even […]
I interrupt my weekly blog post to give you something a bit different. I had the privilege of being on a video podcast with Dementia Action Alliance (DAA). If you aren’t familiar with the organization, it’s a national advocacy and education non-profit committed to created to making a better country in which to live with […]
The last time I wrote about this I got a lot of hate, but I’m hitting the topic again anyway. Nursing homes. I can’t tell you how many people approach me to discuss the guilt they feel after their loved one with dementia moves to a nursing home. Some of that guilt is self-inflicted…but much […]
Sarah–not her real name–lives in a nursing home and has Alzheimer’s. As she nears the end stage of the disease, she’s lost the ability to communicate verbally. Sarah has been a favorite of nursing home staff for her kind smile. Once in a while she is teary-eyed for reasons she can’t express, but she generally […]
People need a sense of purpose. They need to be needed. It’s important that we all have a sense that what we do is meaningful and important. You might anticipate that this post is about individuals living with dementia. You might think I’m going to write about how important it is to support them in […]
