Living Well with Loss and Change
Living well means finding comfort, connection, and purpose, even as life changes. It honours wishes, eases suffering and respects spiritual and cultural needs.
Living well also acknowledges that each life will one day end, inviting us to prepare gently by naming loss, sharing stories, and finding hope throughout life’s many milestones.
Wrapped in Comfort
A Palliative Approach centres you in care
A palliative approach honours the whole person — focusing not just on illness, but on what truly matters most to you and your family. It guides care by asking: What is most important to you right now?
A Palliative approach supports living well at every stage of life.
It helps a person living with dementia and their care partners plan ahead, make choices that reflect personal values, and find resources that bring comfort and support — from care planning and community connections, to healthcare and legal documents.
Good Grief
Loss is a part of living
Living well means cherishing the good days and preparing for the more difficult ones. Along the way, moments of loss and grief are a natural part of life. Together, we can honour grief by naming it, normalizing it, and creating space for it — so you never have to navigate it alone.
Dementia Grief includes dealing with ongoing loss through to bereavement care.
Each change brings a loss of one thing and the start of something new.
Transitions happen at all stages of life. Living with loss acknowledges that we have to put some things down to pick others up. As circumstances change, we are often required to put things down we want to hold onto. Making space to acknowledge the losses we experience as part of living helps us honour what matters to us, adapt with compassion for ourselves and others, and find meaning in the present moment.
Grief does not always need fixing — it needs room to be named and tended so that hope and comfort can gently return.
Mindfulness
Being present as a lifelong healthy practice
Mindfulness is a simple, therapeutic practice that invites us to pay kind and curious attention to what is happening in the present moment. It helps calm the mind and body, reduce stress, and create space to respond gently to whatever each day brings.
For people living with dementia, mindfulness can offer moments of peace, help manage feelings of anxiety or overwhelm, and encourage connection to senses and surroundings. For care partners, mindfulness can be a powerful tool to care for your own well-being, prevent burnout, and stay grounded during times of change, loss, and grief.
Mindfulness doesn’t necessarily require special training or long sessions. It can be as simple as taking a few slow breaths, noticing sounds or textures, or sitting quietly with a comforting memory.
Palliative
- Alzheimer's Is a Life-Limiting Illness With a Terminal Phase Webinar
- Planning Ahead Webinar Webinar
- What Matters Most Webinar Webinar
- My Wishes Alberta Workbook Website
- Palliative Care Enriches Lives Website
- Tools for Care Partners Podcast
- Dementia, Stigma, and Care in South Asian Families (with Anoushka Fernandes) An Alzheimer Society client shares her experience as a care partner, considering dementia, stigma and South Asian families. Video
Grief
- Taking Care of You: Grief and Self Care – Part 2: Anticipatory Grief Learning
- MyGrief.ca Website
- Grief and Bereavement Resource Repository Website
- Wind Phone Map and Storytelling Website
- A Conversation About Grief and Mindfulness Webinar Webinar
- What No One Tells You About Grief Healing, with David Kessler Video
- Grief, Loss and the Dementia Experience Video
Mindfulness
- The Presence Care Project: Online Course for Mindfulness Practices The Presence Care Project is led by mindfulness experts. See their resources on mediations, videos, books and links. Website
- Carers UK, Meditations and Information Website
- Learning to Balance: Self-Guided Activity on Resilience Self-guided activity on developing resilience, using the metaphor of a teeter-totter. Learning
Education
- Taking Care of You: Grief and Self Care – Part 4: Learning to Balance Learning
- Glimmers Practice of Finding Joy with Deb Dana Deb Dana shares about the importance of noticing the positive glimmers in the everyday. Video
- Quick Six of Self-Compassion: Blog from the Centre for Mindful Self-Compassion Short blog offering six reminders of what you could offer yourself to help feel better in a moment of struggle. Website
- The Power of Pause: Writing and Podcast by Cara Bradley The Power of Pause is an article outlining simple ways to engage in mindfulness, and a 15 minute guided meditation about pausing. Website
- The Art of Mindful Living: Teachings and Audio Meditations by Thich Nhat Hanh Written resource that includes meditations and teachings from Thich Nhat Hanh. Additional audio recordings for different meditation practices. Website
- Yoga for Aging Well Webinar (yoga practice starts at 58 minutes) Access to a webinar about yoga. 30-minute yoga practice available at 58:00 minutes in the webinar. Webinar
Practices
- Deep Breathing Guided Practice Video Guided deep breathing technique with video and information. Learning
- Mindfulness Exercises: Courses and Single Practices Access to free online self-guided mindfulness sessions or meditations. Variety of voices and lengths. Website
- Mindful Breathing with Your Hands with Marie Zoom recording from Mid-Day Mindfulness. Webinar
- Mindful Bilateral Movement with Marie Webinar
- Mindful Expanding Peace with Marie Webinar
- Diana Winston Guided Meditations Website
- Insight Timer: Tool for a Wide Variety of Meditations Insight Timer – this is a free app that you can use for guided mindfulness practices. There are many different voices, times and sessions that can be accessed here. Two mindfulness teachers on this app that have been helpful to others in the past are Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Website
For Care Partners
Caring for someone living with dementia can bring moments of love and meaning — and moments of deep fatigue, worry, and grief. You do not have to navigate this alone. These resources are here to help you feel supported, informed, and connected, every step of the way. Pausing to find resources, caring for yourself, and honouring the person you support living with dementia are all parts of being a care partner.nResources for Dementia Grief (Living with Loss), the Palliative Approach (wrapped in comfort), mindfulness, and bereavement support are available for you:
For Healthcare Professionals
Healthcare Professionals play a vital role in helping people living with dementia and their care partners feel heard, comforted, and prepared for living well their whole lives long. Providing care that honours the whole person, supports families through change and loss, and fosters meaningful moments at every stage of the dementia journey is all of our work.
Apply a palliative approach early and throughout care
Recognize and name dementia grief
Integrate mindfulness practices
