This category contains blog posts about how to best help someone living with dementia retain their sense of self-worth and dignity.
Manifesto for Dementia with Dignity This is a manifesto for my book, Dementia With Dignity. It explains what it is like to experience dementia. It’s important that we keep in mind that dementia is a condition, one that is progressive and that we cannot cure with medications. Please take some time to consider each statement … Read more
Being a Dementia Partner It’s very important to remember that the person who is experiencing dementia may or may not be able to understand that it is their own abilities that are changing, and that even though their cognitive skills are becoming more limited, they are not becoming lesser beings. We can preserve their dignity … Read more
Supporting a Sense of Self in Dementia Unless we balance our loved one experiencing dementia’s need for autonomy and dignity with their need for safety, we cannot help them preserve a sense of self. In his book Being Mortal, Atul Gawande points out that in this country we seem to confuse prolonging life with preserving … Read more
We have created the dehumanizing stigma that accompanies dementia by choosing to persist in using a model to explain dementia that is not only flawed but illogical. Stigma is fueled by fear, and fear grows where there is no understanding. Only through changing the way we approach dementia—by giving up the model that is failing … Read more
Transitions from one life stage to another are always complicated. As teenagers become adults, their parents maintain a delicate balance between continued supervision and granting increasing responsibility. The process is rarely smooth. It goes in fits and starts, with spectacular failures interspersed with glowing successes. And it’s the same with the appearance of dementia. How … Read more
How to help someone with dementia retain their sense of self A very important way to help our loved ones with dementia retain their sense of self is to give them opportunities to be kind and helpful. There is nothing more uplifting and effective at helping us feel better about ourselves than being able to … Read more