Pet therapy is well-known for comforting people with dementia. Snuggling a four-legged friend brings on a smile, soothes anxiety and encourages physical activity. People connect to memories of their own beloved pets. Can a robotic pet replace the real thing?

Access to quality rural healthcare, resources, education, and support is a growing challenge in the US and around the globe.  What does this mean for the growing numbers of persons living with dementia and their families who are caring for them?  How does this affect the quality of care being offered by nursing homes and other care providers?

I am humbled and honored to work with such amazing and talented people.  As a trainer, I believe we learn as much from those we are training as they learn from us.  We are all practicing when it comes to dementia care.  Every day is a new day and no matter where we fit into the spectrum, we all need each other to learn and grow.  Let's talk about person-centered care practices.

Stress Reaction is a term being used more often to describe communication in persons living with dementia.  Behavioral expression, too, is communication.  In a growing number of circles, the term behavioral expression is being replaced by stress reaction simply because behaviors sometimes leans toward being a negative descriptive of how persons with dementia express unmet needs.

From the conversations I have every single day with our partners, I'm guessing most of you would give yourselves an adequate score at best.  And perhaps this is on a good day.  "Empowering Your Caregivers" - some of you might just be asking what exactly I mean by empowering caregivers.

Far too often I talk to family caregivers who are concerned about their loved one's cognitive decline.  It is not uncommon to hear such explanations go something like this: