Interviews EPISODES

Until his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Mark Wilson was a human resources executive at Taco Bell. Doctors gave his widowed mom six years to live. Mark retired, moved back home, back to the bedroom of his childhood. And he made a plan. He drew on his corporate experience to build a caregiving team of five aides who cared for his mother 24/7. He researched how particular foods might help his mother and he took over the cooking. He searched for a doctor to help his mother with a ...

From the caregiver's mindset to making a home safe to understanding the legal side of caregiving, The Caregiver's Advocate is a collection of essays, written by and for caregivers. Debbie DeMoss Compton spearheaded "The Caregiver's Advocate," an international bestselling book featuring 21 authors from 4 countries, offering diverse perspectives and strategies for caregivers. The Caregiver's Advocate Volume 2 features 22 experts from 3 countries who share things they wish they had known sooner in...

Lance A. Slatton is a change-maker in the world of family caregiving. He has the lived experience of a caregiver, the expertise of a professional caregiving services provider, and the wisdom to recognize the power of a caregiver's personal story. His service to the community can be seen in family-owned homecare services company, Enriched Life Homecare Services. Beyond that, Slatton is the author The All Home Care Matters Official Family Caregivers Guide, and the host or co-host 4 podcasts about...

What’s it like to be the caregiver for your parents while raising a young family of your own, and your wife is pregnant? Not easy! Healthcare journalist Paul Wynn writes about caregiving issues for more than 70 national publications. He also knows what it’s like to be a caregiver, sandwiched between two generations. That personal story is the subject of "Surviving the Sandwich Generation Years: How to Balance Caring for Parents While Raising Kids", one of twenty-two stories in the award-winni...

The attachment bonds we formed in our earliest relationships influence how we connect with others later in life. Dementia care expert Tami Anastasia, MA, brings 30 years of experience in supporting family and professional caregivers. In this episode she talks about four attachment styles and how they can manifest when caring for someone with dementia.

Former governor of Wisconsin, Martin L. Schreiber ("Marty") married his high school sweetheart, Elaine. Sixty-two years later, she died from Alzheimer's Disease. To help other spouses on the same dementia caregiving journey, Marty wrote a memoir: My Two Elaines. In it, he says, “None of the books I read conveyed the ugly truth about caregiving: that it can destroy you – even kill you – if you go about it wrong.” Marty also wrote the memoir to help heal his own heart. Recounting his ignorance, frustration, and anger, Marty says he was not a very good caregiver. He talks about how having to ask for help challenged his sense of masculinity, something many men of his generation struggle with. He also talks about coping with alcohol, what he calls "the caregiver's poison," until his children intervened and made him see what he was doing to himself.

At part of their daughter's wedding ceremony, Heather was supposed to give their daughter a necklace that had once belonged to Heather's mother.  Heather's husband, John, talks about what it was like when he and his daughter realized Heather had...

For 13 years, John Scully visited his mom in a nursing home. For the last 8 years of her life, she couldn’t talk. So he had other conversations. And they became a book. It’s called Visited Mom Today: Conversations Through the Lens of...

"Between now and dead, you've got a purpose. Don't be timid." Before she retired as a hospice chaplain, Reverend Victoria Burdick faced her own death several times. In her 30s while in divinity school, she wrote a series of essays she called "Lunch...

Mary Lou Falcone became a caregiver when her father had a massive stroke. She was 10 years old. The experience prepared her for the day, many years later, when her husband, illustrator and 1950s rocker Nicky Zann, was diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia...