Challenging behavior is a catch-all term that, in the context of dementia, includes one or combinations of things like shouting, wandering, biting, throwing things, repetitive talking repetitive movements, destroying personal possessions and other objects without regard for whom it belongs, agitation and general anger, physical  or verbal attacks on others, waking others at night, making sexually inappropriate comments, disrobing inappropriately, and urinating or defecating in undesirable locations. This is not an all-inclusive list and I am sure you can think of many more examples that fit under the umbrella term of challenging behavior.

Anticipatory grief refers to a grief reaction that occurs before an impending loss. Typically, the impending loss is a death of someone close due to illness but it can also be experienced by dying individuals themselves.

The number of older people is rising dramatically, particularly those in the 85 years and above age group.  Because the likelihood of developing dementia increases with age, reaching a one in 3 chance by the time a person reaches 85, we must turn our attention to eldercare, age-friendly initiatives to be that of dementia-friendly initiatives.  Let's look at what research tells us about how our neighborhoods can be transformed to age-friendly, dementia-friendly places for people to live as they grow older.

Want to connect with your grandmother or grandfather but can’t go the miles to see them and don’t know what to say over the phone?

There is an urgent need to equip caregivers to better respond to and care for persons living with dementia.  Traditional training models have focused on the number of classroom hours an individual must spend in training, assuming that a person who completes the required training hours is ready to work successfully with people living with dementia.  The shift to competency-based training improves dementia care by focusing on mastery of tasks and tools that are learned.

I was privileged to speak yesterday to the Dallas Area Parkinson's Society (DAPS)  about how care partners can embrace wellness and joy.  For persons living with Parkinson's Disease and other neurological conditions, finding wellness and joy in everyday life can be challenging and elusive at best.  I know this first-hand, as my mother lived with Parkinson's Disease (PD).  Speaking from experience as her partner in this journey, my words of wisdom for embracing wellness and joy encompassed some simple steps.

What is a harder conversation topic with elderly parents - money or death?  If you guessed death, you get a gold star.  Why do we find it so very difficult to discuss the inevitable?  Surely we've all come to grips with the fact there is one thing certain about life and that is death.  We can embrace the ending by learning to embrace the life that we still have with our loved ones until the times comes when they are no longer with us.