I remember going home to an empty house to try to digest my doctor's news, "You have vascular dementia." I thought to myself, I'm only 55 and I'm already a widow, the worst thing that could ever happen to me. But during my career working in Dementia Care, my co-workers and I had always felt that getting any type of dementia diagnosis would be the worst news a person could receive. Having witnessed the progression in so many people, I knew being a widow was nothing compared to what I was going to have to face. I soon discovered those past experiences would, in fact, help me forge through the coming losses. The diagnosis itself was not the worst of it, finding no help or resources was. I had to try to figure out 'what's next' on my own. I got my affairs in order, and came to terms with the fact that my career and the life I had known both were gone. I gave up my home, my car, my ability to drive, my hopes, and my dreams. Yet a stubborn streak remained in me. I decided, 'I'm not done yet,' and made it my new motto. Then I set out to find help, to find my new self. My search led me to Dementia Alliance International. At DAI, I found hope and purpose; this was life-changing and life-saving. I stepped onto a path of a whole new understanding of dementia, advocating, speaking engagements, and learning that life can be beautiful, even with dementia.
- Dementia Care Practice
- Person-Centred Care
- About Dementia
- Dementia Care Therapies
- Pain and Dementia
- Exercise
- Leadership and organisational change
- Elderhood
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- Caregiving : Support and Guidance
- About Dementia
- Early Stage Dementia
- Communication
- Changes in behaviour
- Grief and Loss
- Relationships, Intimacy & Sexuality
- Residential Care
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- Lived experience of Dementia
- Lewy body disease
- Frontotemporal Dementia
- Younger Onset Dementia
- LGBTI and dementia
- Eating and drinking well
- Activities and Engagement
- Culture, Religion and Spirituality
- End of Life and Palliative Care
- Younger Readers
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- Audiobooks
- Australian authors
- Memoir
- Fiction
- Risk reduction - Dementia
- Worried About Your Memory?
- Reminiscence and life story work
- Exercise
- Mindfulness & meditation
- Self-care & Wellbeing
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