In 2016, Kitty Norton left her job as an NBC assistant editor in Los Angeles, CA for her hometown of Portland, OR to care for her mother living with dementia. 

While caring, she authored the dementia caregiver blog Stumped Town Dementia, writing tales of dementia life, not dementia death, which resonated deeply with readers around the world. 

After her mother’s death in 2021, Kitty took to the road in an RV to produce and direct her cross-country documentary film Wine, Women, and Dementia 

This film honors the journey with her mother, as well as spreads awareness of the caregiver side of the equation in dementia, and celebrates family caregivers - to let them know they are not alone and that they are worthy of being seen, heard, and celebrated alongside who they are caring for on this difficult road to the end of life.

In this episode we discuss common tropes and platitudes most often heard in dementia, the reality behind them, and how Kitty’s caregiving journey led her to create her film.

TRANSCRIPT

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Cheryl Phillips, M.D., AGSF, is the immediate past president and CEO of the Special Needs Plan Alliance, and currently a Senior Program Consultant with the John A Hartford Foundation. She has extensive experience in health policy, Medicare Advantage and the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). As a fellowship-trained geriatrician, her clinical practice focused on the continuum.

She served as a primary care health policy fellow under Secretary Tommy Thompson and currently chairs The SCAN Foundation Board of Directors and serves as a director on the SCAN Health Plan and Group Boards.

Today, we discuss the 4 M’s that will help you prepare for each appointment, the burden of being the connector and care coordinator with specialists, dealing with assumptions and expectations, the dangers of anesthesia and falls, and much more. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

TRANSCRIPT

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Mental health is crucial for overall well-being at every stage of life. It encompasses our emotional, psychological, and social well-being, influencing our thoughts, feelings, actions, stress management, relationships, and decision-making. Supporting your mental health is especially important during caregiving. 

In this episode, we discuss the difference between depression and malaise, how to spot depression in our cells and our care partners, and practical strategies and resources to support our mental health on a daily basis. I hope you enjoy our conversation.

TRANSCRIPT AND RESOURCES

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When Alzheimer’s dementia arrived without warning, Dr. Sheri L. Yarbrough (Praxis Senior Care-Giving Solutions)used her ability to view a circumstance from multiple perspectives to understand what her mother was experiencing. That became the genesis for her care management strategy, the Praxis for Care. Living the Praxis for Care helped create her motto: care-giving is what you do for your loved one; giving-care is what you do for both of you.

In this episode, Dr. Yarbrough and I discuss a range of topics, including identifying your need for support and the specific type of support you require as a caregiver. We also talked about focusing on what remains rather than what is lost, allowing relationships to evolve through your dementia journey, and the important difference between caregiving and giving care.

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE

Praxis for Care

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Today my guest is Nancy Gentle Boudrie. For 35 years, Nancy helped Business Owners and Corporations achieve peak perform and create exponential success until she found her true passion and purpose working with people to manage high levels of stress and navigate unprecedented challenges. 

She blends her business knowledge with her training from Jon Kabat Zinn’s Mindful Based Stress Reduction and Naropa University’s Mindful Leadership Training. 

In this episode, Nancy and I discuss what mindfulness is, how to access it, the difference between detachment and dissociation, steps to mindfully accept your emotions, and simple techniques on how to incorporate mindfulness into your caregiving.

SHOW NOTES

Nancy's website - Awaken With Light

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Traveling with your care partner can be stressful. Carol Giuliani of Senior Travel Companion Services is here to provide strategies and some little-known tips for caregivers. She has planned and executed over 125 domestic and international trips through all 50 states and across the globe. In this episode, Carol and I discuss tips for traveling with your care partner, everything from how to plan your trip, which airlines and resources can assist best how to handle long car rides, traveling with medical equipment, and everything in between. 

SHOW NOTES

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More than half of Americans take four or more medications a day. That number increases to at least seven when we add over-the-counter medications. All of these have side effects and interactions. Today my guest is DeLon Canterbury, Founder of Geriatrix.org who hopes to revolutionize the way we look at medications by educating the public on deprescribing.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of knowing the medications your care partners are taking, what he considers dangerous drugs, the most over prescribed drugs and how to discuss deprescribing with your care partners physician.

SHOW NOTES

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Dementia. While we know it’s a progressive, neurodevelopmental condition with over 200 types, there are still many questions of why and how it occurs. 

My guest, Mitchell Clionsky, PhD is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist with 45 years of experience evaluating and treating patients with cognitive impairment, dementia, ADHD, and traumatic brain injury. 

Dr Clionsky, along with his wife and partner Dr Emily Clionsky have treated more than 25,000 patients with cognitive impairment.

They have taken their experience and research and combined it with the most current scientific findings about to create their new book, Dementia Prevention, Using your head to save your brain a practical guide that empowers you to improve your brain's future. 

We cover a lot of topics today - our genes, common health issues, sleep, hearing, our habits, and the lifestyle changes we can make to support ourselves.

SHOW NOTES

BRAINDOC.COM

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Dr Allison Applebaum is an Associate Attending Psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), and also the Founding Director of their Caregivers Clinic the first of its kind in any Comprehensive Cancer Center in the US. Dr Applebaum amplifies the voices of family caregivers in her scientific journals, editorials and her research which focuses on developing innovative ways to identify, prepare and support caregivers.

Through this work she also addresses the distress experienced as a result of increasing responsibilities. In Allison's new book, Stand By Me A Guide to Navigating Modern, Meaningful Caregiving. She brings not only her professional experience to the subject, but also her personal journey of caring for her beloved father, Stanley Applebaum. In our conversation today, we discuss her book, the experience of living in the in between as a family caregiver, and how caregivers can find meaning and purpose while juggling the responsibilities and emotional ups and downs. 

Allisonapplebaum.com

Book - Stand By Me - A Guide to Navigating Modern, Meaningful Caregiving

SHOW NOTES

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Today my guest is Barbara Karnes, an Award Winning Nurse and End of Life Educator. She was NHPCO (The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization) Hospice Innovator Award Winner of 2018 & the 2015 International Humanitarian Woman of the Year. 

Barbara has put her 40 years of experience regarding education, care, and support of dying people and their loved ones into numerous books and resources. One book in particular Gone From My Sight: The Dying Experience, published in 1985, has sold over 35 million copies world wide. Known in the hospice world as “the little blue book” it is the most beloved and widely used resource of its kind. All of her booklets are essential resources in navigating end of life care.

Today we discuss how to prepare ourselves and our care partners including how to chose the right hospice, what happens with food and other physical and emotional issues at end of life and how we can be prepared and present as caregivers for those final moments. 

SHOW NOTES

Bkbooks.com

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