Dear Medical Advocate; If you’re reading this because I can’t make my own medical decisions due to dementia, please understand I don’t wish to prolong my living or dying, even if I seem relatively happy and content. As a human being who currently has the moral, legal, and intellectual capacity to make my own decisions, […]
Dementia
Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter -A film by Deborah Hoffmann
1994, 44 minutes, Color With profound insight and a healthy dose of levity, the Academy Award-nominated COMPLAINTS OF A DUTIFUL DAUGHTER chronicles the various stages of a mother’s Alzheimer’s Disease and the evolution of a daughter’s response to the illness. The desire to cure the incurable-to set right her mother’s confusion and forgetfulness, to temper […]
In The Moment
Essential listening for understanding how to be with people who have dementia. This American Life “Magic Words” Act 2 : Rainy Days and Mondays. Producer Chana Joffe-Walt talks to a woman named Karen Stobbe and her husband, Mondy about a plan they’ve recently enacted in their family. Karen’s mother lives with them and she has […]
Duplex Planet -David Greenberger
Its a zine. It’s a book. It’s an album…. I discovered these zines in my early 20s, when I was first experiencing people with dementia and the warehousing of elders, encouraged me to expand my experience and my imagination, more possibilities for connection and joy. In 1979 I took a job as activities director at […]
Out of Time: The Unbecoming of Self -Sallie Tisdale
Essay published in Harper’s Magazine is one my favorites on dementia. Sallie Tisdale is a wonderful writer and a palliative care nurse. Her latest book, Advice for Future Corpses is fantastic–minus the tiny section where she writes about hospice. Sallie Tisdale’s Website.
Dementia Directive
Advanced Directive for Dementia Dementia Provision from Compassion and Choices NPR feature JAMA article VSED : Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking
Gladys Worms Natchez
11.18.1929 – 05.28.1994 ,My Great Aunt Gladys launched my career as an oral historian. She bought me my first audio recorder so that I could interview her about her life before she chose to end it. Gladys had dementia and did not want to stick around as it progressed. Saying good-bye to her was a […]
