oks Kenny serves as executive director of the Women’s Network at UsAgainstAlzheimer’s. She also directs the organization’s consumer–facing brain health education and engagement programs as the general manager for BrainGuide, the organization’s newest initiative focusing on bringing state-of-the-art technology to consumers across the country. Brooks has spent her career applying marketing and business know-how to social causes and has become a national speaker on women’s brain health, Alzheimer’...
May 12, 2021•36 min•Season 2Ep. 79
Linda Burhans is a national speaker and radio show host dedicated to the mission of caring for caregivers. As an expert in caregiver advocacy, Linda has facilitated over 1,500 support groups, speaking engagements, and workshops for caregivers. A common discussion point with those who care for someone with dementia (caree) is the importance of scheduling daily activities, which provide a sense of purpose for their loved one. Individuals with dementia still understand that helping out, being busy,...
May 04, 2021•32 min•Season 2Ep. 78
Sarahbeth Persiani is the author of Run, Walk, Crawl – A Caregiver Caught Between Generations. For 5 years, Sarahbeth was the primary caregiver for her father, who had dementia, while working full-time and taking care of her own family. As the founder of her business, We Are Sharing the Sun, she helps companies create a supportive culture for family caregivers and provides education, support, and encouragement for working professionals who are themselves in the sandwich generation caregiving sq...
Apr 27, 2021•33 min•Season 2Ep. 77
Sandy Mangis, otherwise known as The Mindset Muse, is an author, blogger, and podcaster who specializes in giving love, support, and guidance to those who unexpectedly find themselves in the role of caregiver. “Caregiving is something that people just get thrown into. And as you guys know, a lot of us get thrown into it. We don't like it, we’re opposed to it, we feel forced,” Sandy explains. “I've said that word many times and I get a lot of flak saying that but it's the truth. I mean many peopl...
Apr 20, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 76
Tony Copeland-Parker was a professional pilot/manager for 37 years. When he retired, he began writing his blog, PlayHard-HaveFun.com . Since then, he and his partner Catherine have traveled to 82 different countries. They have run at least a half-marathon in thirty-five countries and on all seven continents. When Tony and his partner Catherine were in their 50’s, they found that he needed a heart-valve replacement, and she had early-onset Alzheimer’s. They both had a history as endurance athlete...
Apr 13, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 75
Deborah Harlow was the youth caregiver for her father, from age 12 to 24. Then she provided long-distance care for her grandfather, grandmother, mom, and adult brother as a ‘sandwich caregiver’ even as she was raising her young daughter. She is passionate about working with youth caregivers and Gen-X women in navigating the caregiving journey with joy as their compass and love as their guide. Deborah is a certified mediator in California, focusing on family conflict resolution and youth peer res...
Apr 06, 2021•33 min•Season 2Ep. 74
Jennifer Lee lives in Alabama with her husband, Chris, and their six children, who are between the ages of 14 and 25. Before her diagnosis with primary progressive aphasia(PPA) in 2017, she had worked as a high school English teacher and media specialist for 17 years. PPA is a neurological syndrome in which language capabilities become slowly and progressively impaired. It is caused by neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease or Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration. “I saw four diffe...
Mar 30, 2021•35 min•Season 2Ep. 73
Kathy Koenig, M.S., is a Caregiver Coach and Consultant. She has been a caregiver for family and friends, both local, and at a distance. From those experiences, she knew she wanted to create programs to help others find solutions and satisfaction in caregiving. She is certified to teach caregiver programs, and presented at national conferences. Her goal is to help caregivers find manageability, ease, and joy in caregiving. “Sometimes caregiving is so overwhelming that you're thinking that you do...
Mar 23, 2021•36 min•Season 2Ep. 72
Barbara Conley is an independent consultant who supports individuals in their active family caregiver role, through coaching and resource navigation. Her caregiving path began over 45 years ago, when her younger sister was affected with bacterial meningitis as an infant, resulting in spastic quadriplegia, cortical vision impairment, and non-verbal communication abilities. Since then, caregiving has remained a strong presence in her life, as she actively assists her parents in caring for her sist...
Mar 16, 2021•35 min•Season 2Ep. 71
Harry Macqueen trained as an actor at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, before turning to filmmaking in 2013. His acting credits include Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles and the hit British TV show Eastenders . Supernova is his second feature film as a writer-director. “From the outset, my desire was to make an empowering, powerful, challenging, and timely film about what we are willing to do for the people that we love,” Harry says. Supernova stars Colin Firth and Stanley Tuc...
Mar 09, 2021•32 min•Season 2Ep. 70
Nurse, aged care expert, and Director of Montessori Consulting in Australia, Anne Keely has over 40-years’ experience in caring for dementia patients. “I just happened about 13 years ago to stumble across a Montessori activities workshop that was being delivered by Dr Cameron Camp from the U.S. Halfway through that morning, the penny dropped. I thought, this is the aged care holy grail that I’ve been looking for,” Anne explains. “This is a way that we can honor, respect, and work with our elders...
Mar 02, 2021•35 min•Season 2Ep. 69
Since 1983, Hank Dunn has been ministering to patients at the end of their lives and to their families. During that time, he has served in a nursing home, hospice programs, and a hospital, and become an expert on end-of-life decisions. He wrote, “ Hard Choices for Loving People ” to help him explain end-of-life decisions to patients and families. First published in 1990, it is now in its 6th edition with over 3.5 million copies sold. “Families who have taken care of their dementia-stricken loved...
Feb 23, 2021•39 min•Season 2Ep. 68
For more than seven years our hosts, Bobbi and Mike Carducci, were the caregivers for Rodger, Mike’s ailing father who was stricken with dementia. With more patience and compassion than either thought possible, they cared for Rodger’s every need through to his final days. Since then they have dedicated their lives to sharing their personal journey with this cruel disease. In today’s episode they share their insights into the challenges facing anyone caring for a loved one with dementia, Lewy Bod...
Feb 16, 2021•35 min•Season 2Ep. 67
When Anne Scott, a mother of five children, was diagnosed with vascular brain lesions, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia, her whole life changed and her twelve-year-old daughter, Evie, became her caregiver. “I was in total shock. I came home, sat in my garden for a couple of hours 'cause I couldn't go in and tell the children. I just sat there for a while and cried,” Anne says about the day she was misdiagnosed with dementia. “I got myself together and then went in the house and told the chil...
Feb 09, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 66
Dr. Karen (Karle) Truman, founder of Dementia Caregiver Resources and author of the Dementia Caregiver’s Little Book of Hope talks about Huntington’s disease and finding resources for the caregiving journey. Karen saw her own beloved mother, grandmother, and other relatives stricken with dementia but did not know what type they had. “When people talk about the difference between Alzheimer's and dementia, I tell them that saying you have dementia is like saying that you have a brain disease. You ...
Feb 02, 2021•29 min•Season 2Ep. 65
Ariel Desheubel assists former Rodger That guest Bill Ralston with caring for his wife, Cindy, as she struggles with dementia. Ariel works Monday through Friday in their home, has a young son, and is in her early thirties. “It's not necessarily your age that makes you a good caregiver, it is your ability to connect with that person right now as they are,” Bobbi points out. “We've made little transitions to where things are now easier for her, and it's not so challenging all the time,” Ariel says...
Jan 26, 2021•32 min•Season 2Ep. 64
Malia majored in journalism and embarked on a career as a TV producer and advertising copywriter. After years spent writing short ad copy, she realized she had more to say, so she co-wrote “Sisterly Shove," a memoir about stepping up when moms die and dads are left behind to get ancient on their own. The book examines what happens when Malia’s mom was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and her dad developed dementia. Malia and her serious-as-a-heart-attack physician sister engaged in hand-to-heart...
Jan 19, 2021•31 min•Season 2Ep. 63
Annette Dashofy is the USA Today best-selling author of the multi Agatha Award nominated Zoe Chambers mystery series about a paramedic and deputy coroner in rural Pennsylvania’s tight-knit Vance Township. Annette also helped care for her father as he battled the ravages of Alzheimer’s. Less than ten years after he passed away, her mother was diagnosed with vascular dementia, placing her once again into the role of caregiver. “We really tried for as long as possible to keep her in her home until ...
Jan 12, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 62
Ashley Raines is a wife, mother of a four-year-old boy, full-time employee for the division for Diversity and Inclusion at Missouri State University, and the primary caregiver for her father with mixed dementia. “At first, before we really understood what we were getting into, it was really, really, difficult. It’s hard to understand what is dementia and what is him,” Ashley says. “He frequently thinks I'm his wife, which gets extremely uncomfortable. He hates my husband especially when he think...
Jan 05, 2021•32 min•Season 2Ep. 61
Charlie Young is the CEO of SYNERGY HomeCare which is one of the largest franchisors of in-home care services. “Our mission is to help people thrive at home,” Young says. “Benevolent probing minimizes that feeling of threat while making it possible for you to accurately assess how your parents are doing.” It is common for seniors to strongly guard their independence and feel threatened when topics arise that risk the lifestyle they are comfortable living, so benevolent probing is a simple way fo...
Dec 29, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 60
Susanne White is the founder of Caregiver Warrior. She was blessed with the opportunity to care for her parents and ventured out on a caregiving journey that would change her life. Susanne blogs about this journey and shares her experience, strength, and hope with others so that they too may survive caregiving with grace and empowerment. “I think caregivers are warriors and that their battlegrounds are in the health care system. I mean, we fight a battle every day. Caregivers are confronted with...
Dec 22, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 59
Norrms, as his friends call him, was diagnosed with early onset dementia at age 50. In the 10+ years since his diagnosis, he has done more to educate the world about the disease than most of us can imagine doing in a lifetime. "Dementia is one of the biggest health crises in this country at the moment, and we've got to try to understand it so we can deal with it,” Norrms says. “Dementia is not forgetfulness. Dementia starts affecting your life skills, which means that when you sit there for lunc...
Dec 15, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 58
Jennifer N. Levin is a writer and caregiver advocate. She has been published in The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, LA Weekly, and other publications with a focus on social and cultural issues both in the US and abroad. In television, she has worked in the writers' room on a variety of dramas, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. “My parents were divorced and I'm an only child, so really as my dad was navigating this, I was the one doing it with him. At a certain point, I was the one that to...
Dec 08, 2020•39 min•Season 1Ep. 57
Rabbi Michael Goldman is the Director Emeritus of Seivah, a non-profit organization whose work and mission is to create better emotional and spiritual lives for people with dementia and their care partners. Rabbi Goldman began rabbinical school the year his grandmother, who had vascular dementia, died. Observing how she became less attached to worrying and more attached to nature, great grandchildren, and other things that she loved, Rabbi Goldman concluded that having dementia does not preclude...
Dec 01, 2020•45 min•Season 1Ep. 56
Gina Martin is the founder and executive director of the Bob and Diane Fund and the managing account executive, International Editorial Sales, for National Geographic Creative. The fund honors Bob and Diane Martin, high school sweethearts married for 49 and a half years. In 2006, at the age of 65, Diane was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, and she passed away 5 years later. Bob, her husband, loyal partner, and devoted caregiver, died just 3 months later. “When we first heard about my mom’...
Nov 24, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 55
Ambiguous loss is a familiar experience for many care partners and families living with and/or caring for a person with dementia, even if they don’t know it. Being prepared to identify, address, and respond to ambiguous loss is an important facet of dementia services. Lori Nisson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has spent more than 20 years specializing in leadership and clinical positions supporting the needs of patients and families coping with emotional, movement, memory, and behavior...
Nov 17, 2020•41 min•Season 1Ep. 54
Terry Korth Fischer writes mystery, memoir, and short stories. Her memoir, Omaha to Ogallala, was published in 2019. After a friendship that spanned more than a decade, Terry spent eighteen months as the primary caregiver for Anna Fogelman, a 95-year-old unmarried woman, who loved life and learning until she forgot her passions. Guiding Anna through stay-at-home care and then into assisted living, Terry became her friend’s lifeline in the baffling world around her. “We like to say that we were s...
Nov 10, 2020•38 min•Season 1Ep. 53
Dr. Melissa Armstrong is the Director of the Mangurian Clinical-Research Headquarters for Lewy Body Dementia at the University of Florida Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. In Lewy Body dementia, some of the things that make it different from diseases like Alzheimer are the hallucinations and delusions. The most common hallucinations in Lewy Body dementia are usually formed objects like bugs, pets, and people. The delusions involve someone believing something completely that is no...
Nov 03, 2020•37 min•Season 1Ep. 52
Robyn Etherington has a diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy and has been practicing throughout South East Queensland for over seven years. Philip Etherington is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and Disability Support Worker practicing in South East Queensland. He is currently studying Dementia Therapy at the University of Tasmania. “You don't need a hypnotherapist to come to your house and do the process. You can do it at home, be your own hypnotherapist, and it's not damaging. It's safe...
Oct 27, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 51
Ashley holds a Bachelor of Science degree in gerontology (the study of aging) from Bowling Green State University and she received her master’s degree in social work from UNC. Her graduate certification is focused on dementia care practices, aging, and global research. She currently works for the state of North Carolina, counseling families and individuals impacted by dementia. “At the tender age of 6 years old, I was introduced to Alzheimer’s disease as I watched it take a toll on my great gran...
Oct 20, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 50
