Alzheimer Annie is a fictional character I created to help people understand what being in a long-term care facility (LTCF) might feel like. Annie is a woman in her mid-eighties who lives with dementia of the Alzheimer’s type in the mid- to later-stages of the disease; she resides in a fictional LTCF somewhere in Canada. Her experiences are based… Continue reading alzheimer annie invites you in
“Your mom’s been weepy and anxious since I got here this afternoon,” Nurse Ratched* said as I approached. She was writing notes in a binder that lay on top of the meds cart. I stopped beside her. “She’s not feeling well. Maybe something to do with the food at dinner, or a BM. Anyway, she’s… Continue reading the story of the dirty pull-up
These gifts are inexpensive (they don’t cost dollars and cents, so everyone can afford them), and yet priceless (because of the fact they can’t be bought, and must be given from the heart). Even better, they can be gifted all year round! Please consider giving one, several or all of these gifts this year (and… Continue reading 6 priceless gifts you could give people living with dementia (and everyone else for that matter!)
Wow! Bravo to gerontologist, author, and dementia care advocate Dr. Al Power who teamed up with Heather Luth, Dementia Program Coordinator at Schlegel Villages, to produce this superb parody of how the behaviour of people with dementia is mislabelled by those who subscribe to the damaging artificial construct of so-called Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of… Continue reading brilliant lol take on old folk tune strikes powerful paradigm-shifting chord
The ways we see dementia and the people who live with it are changing, but not fast enough! Many of our perceptions remain distorted and damaging. These distorted and damaging perceptions result in poor care, stress and unacceptable outcomes. What if we learned to ask better questions? What if we opened our minds to possibility… Continue reading 20 dementia “what ifs?”
“If only I had known,” is what I say to myself every time I see a Teepa Snow demo I haven’t seen before. This one was no exception when I first stumbled across it. I had very few problems helping my mom get dressed. But how many times did I watch care workers struggle to… Continue reading teepa snow shows how to help someone living with dementia to put on a jacket or sweater without resistance
In June this year, I posted an open letter to the worldwide dementia care community. Since then, advocates and activists such as myself, including Dr. Al Power, Daniela Greenwood, Howard Gordon, Liz Lester, Leah Bisiani, Sonya Barsness, Dr. Chris Alderman, Kate Swaffer, and others, have joined forces to create an awareness and action campaign calling for the ban of the damaging… Continue reading 20 compelling reasons to rethink the way we label and medicalise the behaviour of people who live with dementia #BanBPSD
The state of dementia care (i.e. largely lacking and often substandard) is the same everywhere. I know because I get comments and messages to that effect from around the world. This one, from long-time Australian subscriber Kate G. confirms what I opined in hundreds of studies make me mad as hell. Kate wrote: Dearest and Amazing… Continue reading sometimes they just don’t get it in australia either
In March 2017, I wrote an open letter to Québec’s Minister of Health regarding the rationing of incontinence products in the province’s long-term care facilities. The letter includes a two-minute video, which demonstrates the amount of fluid required to fill an incontinence brief to overflowing, as I found my mother’s to be on numerous occasions.… Continue reading hail mary i need to pee
In the world of dementia care, and problably elsewhere for that matter, a restraint is anything that restricts or controls a person’s behaviour. Restraints may be physical, chemical, and environmental; all three were inappropriately and unecessarily used on my mother in the long-term “care” facility (aka known on this blog as Dementia Jail), in which… Continue reading don’t fence me in: a true story about the impact of physical restraints on my mom who lived with alzheimer disease
My Alzheimer's Story 