Welcome to this Unspeakably Good Dementia Blog!

Welcome to our new blog on the Blogger platform. Here, we're all about getting the best news and information to caregivers of loved ones with dementia. I'll have lots of great articles, videos, education, and opportunities for learning coming your way shortly.



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2025 Walk to End Alzheimer's Disease

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At elumenEd, we're already preparing for the 🟣2025 Walk to End Alzheimer's Disease🟣 in October. Are you? With the amazing help of Kristen at the Alzheimer's Association, I've got my team page all set up and – ahem – I'm ready to receive donations! (Hint, hint.) (Super secret tip: if you donate to my team right now, for the next four months when someone asks, you can say you're already sponsoring a team and they [maybe] won't bug you anymore!) 😊 Even better, if you're in the Tucson area, you can sign up to walk with us and be an official member of my team, The elumeNATION! Every 🦸‍♀️superhero🦸‍♀️ who donates or walks with me will also get a personal shoutout in my newsletter at [www.dementianewsletter.com](http://www.dementianewsletter.com/). I will sing your praises to all 20,000 of my subscribers for your support in the fight against Alzheimer's disease. Check the page linked below to 💜donate or join my team right now!💜 http://act.alz.org/got...
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What Learning Greek Taught Me About My Mom’s Unmet Dementia Needs

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My partner and I are planning a trip to Greece later this year. It’s going to be my first trip to Europe, and I’ve been insufferably excited. I even decided to learn a little Greek on Duolingo. I learned a lot of words over the 100+ days I studied…and none of them was “bathroom”! I’m imagining myself walking through the cradle of western civilization or standing in the middle of the Parthenon, unable to enjoy the experience because I have no way to find the bathroom and I’ve really, REALLY got to go! Imagining myself in that situation gives me some insight into how vulnerable I would feel if I couldn’t communicate: suddenly my mom’s agitation makes a lot more sense. If I couldn’t communicate my most basic needs, I would be agitated too. If you notice your loved one growing agitated, starting to wander, or becoming aggressive, they may have unmet needs that they can’t communicate. Here are my top five: address these first to see if you can satisfy a need that they have but can’t speak. ...
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Are you Asking the Wrong Question?

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In the last edition of The Dementia Newsletter, I wrote about what happens when we run into resistance to our care. We talked about how our care might be perceived and why it might be rejected. (You can read the original article here.) As I’ve continued to ponder the subject of care refusal, I’ve come up with a distinction that may shine some light on why some interactions I’ve had with people with dementia have been successful, and why other interactions haven’t been. So here’s my thesis: see what you think — when we run into a refusal of care, I think we tend to ask ourselves one of these two possible questions: Why won’t they…? Why would they…? Perhaps this doesn’t seem like much of a distinction. However, I think that the sooner you start asking the second question, the sooner everything will get easier. Here’s how I see it: the first question isn’t about helping your loved one. Not really. It’s about having a task to get done. #1 asks (whom?) for a solution to a hopeless problem, ...
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