This category contains blog posts about the skills that are not lost in people who are living with dementia.
How you can support someone living with dementia In 2017 the New York Times ran three articles on Alzheimer’s and dementia. The central piece, “Fraying at the Edges: Her Fight to Live with Alzheimer’s” is a lengthy word and video essay about a woman’s experiences in being diagnosed with MCI and then Alzheimer’s, and beginning … 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
(This article was first posted in the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners’ newsletter, November 2020 edition.) My background and how the DAWN Method of dementia care began Mom keeps losing her car so we’re going to have to put her in a care facility. She can’t live alone anymore.” Those words caught my attention. ‘Mom’ was … Read more
Dementia came into my life as it does for many of us—when someone we love gets it. For me, it was a neighbor who had Alzheimer’s and was becoming too forgetful to manage entirely on her own. Her children lived elsewhere and would have to move her into a care facility unless they could find … Read more
As dementia caregivers, we do both ourselves and our loved ones great harm when we focus on what is lost to dementia rather than what is kept. At DAWN, we focus on our clients’ abilities, not their disabilities. Dementia is the condition of progressive cognitive impairment, but not a condition of complete cognitive impairment—not for … Read more
How do we provide support for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia? We’ve developed very specific ways to help people with so many other illnesses and conditions. We give walkers to those who have hip or knee surgery, and wheelchairs and motorized scooters to people with paralysis. We train dogs to recognize the onset of seizures, … Read more