Instead of the fear, stigma and shame many associate with the phenomenon of dementia, reveal the resilience, human connection and wellbeing that is available to us all.
In order for me to gain some firsthand experience of what it is like to live in an institutional dementia care setting, I arranged with the administration of a nursing home in the area for me to be admitted as a “resident” without the care staff knowing that I did not have dementia. These are some reflections on my five day stay.
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How can we continue to offer enjoyable interactive programs for people living with dementia in a time of pandemic and isolation? In this essay, Susan McFadden describes how a nonprofit in Wisconsin is staying connected with people who formerly attended memory cafes in person and who used to enjoy daylong outings together.
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“There is just such a silence. If you turn on the TV or the radio it just forces more of a silence.” Reflects Mary Lee Fulkerson, an expert on the lived experience of Dementia in Nevada, about her experience with the pandemic. “I don’t interact with that well. I get depressed watching the news so […]
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Reimagining Dementia: A Creative Coalition for Justice is an international group of dementia activists and allies – health professionals, people living with dementia (young and old), carers/care partners, family and community members, advocates, artists, academics, policy makers and others – who share a diverse and humanizing vision of care and support that promotes inclusion, relationality, creativity, […]
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How improvisation gives us a powerful tool for moving from “How things should be” to “What can we create given what exists?” – and the most humanizing shot at relating to the strangeness, the fluidity and the uncertainty of dementia (and pandemic life) in ways that promote intimacy and growth rather than frustration and humiliation.
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Dementia, Alzheimer’s, senility, forgetfulness. All of these words point to an experience. But do they point to the same one? Are they different? Are they the same? I often hear these words thrown around interchangeably. Here I hope to give some etymological clarity. Aging in America is confusing. By using clear language, I hope we can communicate […]
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Recently, I was giving a talk about what I do at Elder Care Alliance, and I realized that I needed to start with the question: What is a dementia-inclusive community? The answer is simple: A dementia-inclusive society is one in which people living with dementia, care partners and professionals work side by side to make a better […]
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Do people with dementia really “live in the past”? Wow, this question led me down a rabbit hole. And then I thought about Alice in Wonderland and that rabbit hole. Hmm, that is so meta. In Alice in Wonderland, when Alice follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole, a common interpretation is that she […]
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