Being diagnosed under the age of 65 presents unique challenges and there are many topics to consider, including, finances, children, employment, and health wishes. Living with dementia can cause big changes in individuals and families future plans as many need to consider how life needs and wishes may change as a person's dementia progresses. Your caregiving role is dependent on the needs of the person with dementia and your unique situation.
Care Partners, these next scenarios are not here to scare you, but we want to make you aware of things that may happen. It is important to know that these things do not happen to everyone, but knowing it can, will better prepare you in the case these situations arise. Within each of the situations below, there can be many individual experiences, they can range mild to extreme. Remind yourself that your family member has dementia, and this is the cause of these situations.
A guide for spouses of people with lewy body dementia.
Caregiving takes a lot of time. Even if you had spare time to daydream in the first place, it's probably gone now. However, you must give yourself a mental break once in a while. The following list is intended to make you think back to a simpler time in your past, and possible one in your future.
The holidays are all about spending time with friends and family. Including a person with dementia in these events is important because it helps them connect, through familiar faces and objects, to their past. And create new memories too.
This presentation by Sara Brooks, Edmonton-based singer and choir conductor, will have you singing….literally, we will be singing (no previous music experience needed)! Sara will share some knowledge of how to use music with your family member living with dementia whether they live with you or live elsewhere. Music can touch everyone, even someone with advanced dementia.
Join us to hear Dr. Hannah Cherniawsky BMSc, MD of the University of Alberta speak on care partner burnout. She is the current leader of the Health Savvy Seniors Initiative. The initiative aims to educate and empower seniors to be active members of their health care team. Then we will have a presentation on depression, this will be given by a second year medical student from the University of Alberta, she is new to the initiative but is excited to be a community advocate for seniors.
Join us as Dr. Jayna Holyod-Leduc from the University of Calgary and AHS presents on common issues that care partners face when looking after family members with dementia. She will also provide some practical evidence-informed advice and tools to help manage the more stressful or challenging parts of being a care partner.
Learn what you might expect in your role as a family care partner from an experienced family member who has completed this journey. Find out how your role might impact your relationship with your family member, what emotions you might experience and what challenges you might face. Start planning how to care for yourself during this journey.