By Christy Byrne Yates, MS, LEP, California, US For our March installment of Books & Chit Chat, our monthly Book Club collaboration with Aging & Amazing, we talk with Ruth Stevens, a former public relations professional from New York City and LA, and the author of the debut novel “Stage Seven,” inspired, in part, by her personal experience dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease and decline. A fiction story acquisitions editor with AlzAuthors and a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Ruth brings a unique perspective to her writing, i ..read more

By Dana Walrath In the first few months that my mother Alice and dementia lived with me, she said, “You should quit your job and make art full time.”  I promise you that as a new American, she had never said anything like that before. It was more like, “Dana, you will never get a good job making art. You should go to medical school!” I followed Alice’s updated advice and took a leave of absence from my work as a professor of medical anthropology and have never gone back. Today, I am using story to upend the dominant narrative not just about dementia but about a host of other issues. At th ..read more

Alder Allensworth, Florida, USA I cared for my mother who had Alzheimer’s disease. My niece Olivia (age 7) and nephew James (age 5) only saw their Gran on holidays from school. On one particular visit in 2008, the changes they observed were significant and they realized something strange was going on with their Gran. Everything came to a head one day when their Gran, who was sundowning, wandered upstairs with Olivia’s special box of monster drawings. Olivia accused her Gran of stealing the monsters. Running interference between Olivia and Gran added extra stress to the family relationships. It ..read more

By Christy Byrne Yates, MS, LEP, California, US This is a replay of our book club discussion with our friends at Aging & Amazing. “Books & Chit Chat” is a monthly book club featuring a title from the AlzAuthors collection. Throughout the month, readers participate in a discussion in the book club’s Circle community at Aging & Amazing, then meet with the author for an in-depth discussion of the book and the caregiving journey. The online discussions are typically moderated by Andrea Couture, but she was unavailable for this episode so AlzAuthor founder, manager and author Marianne S ..read more

By Marianne Sciucco, New York, US AlzAuthors is honored to be chosen as one of the top 80 Best Dementia Blogs and Websites to follow in 2024! We were selected from thousands of blogs on the web and ranked by traffic, social media followers and freshness. We’re joined by several other blogs associated with AlzAuthors, including Lori LaBey’s “Alzheimer’s Speaks”, the late Wendy Mitchell’s “Which Me Am I Today?”, Rachel Wonderlin’s “Dementia By Day”, the “Kate Swaffer Blog”, Gerda Saunders’ “My Life With Dementia”, the “Dementia Map Blog”, Deborah Shouse’s “Dementia Journey”, and Christy Turner’s ..read more

By Christina Consolino, Ohio, US Summer 2015 began with a bout of shingles for my dad, who then fell multiple times. A short stint in rehab followed by PT and OT at home meant that my sisters and I, all of whom lived out of town, had to put our lives on hold and help Dad recuperate. Mom didn’t have the physical capability or medical knowledge like we did, or, as we found out during our time with our parents, the cognitive ability. When Mom made a large error in judgment that could have resulted in disastrous consequences, we pushed for a neurological evaluation of her, which led to a diagnosis ..read more

By Marianne Sciucco, New York, US We’re thrilled to invite you to join us for the 2024 NYC Dementia ARTS Festival on Thursday, April 11th at the Marjorie Deane Little Theatre in Manhattan. The festival is a collaboration between us and our friends at the Dementia Spring Foundation, and features both a daytime matinee and an evening performance. The Festival features a star-studded line up of songwriters, comedians, poets, playwrights, filmmakers and artists who are telling new stories of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, breaking down stereotypes and bringing hope to the dementia community. Yo ..read more

By Christy Byrne Yates, MS, California, US Discover the unexpected truth about dementia care from a professional who found herself on the other side of caregiving. Get ready to uncover the surprising insights that transformed her perspective and could change yours too. Find out what left her reevaluating her own caregiving advice and how she’s now championing an empowering approach for other caregivers. It’s a revelation that could reshape the way you think about dementia care and caregiving. Mary Ann Drummond, a highly experienced nurse with a career spanning over 30 years, is a prominent fig ..read more

Marc Alderdice , Maryland, USA My memoir is about my wife Mary’s and my trek through the various stages of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Initially I did not intend to write a book. It started with me putting my thoughts together to process what was happening and assess how to better take care of Mary. I needed some way to help me know what to do and how to respond on a consistent basis, not just reacting to my own thoughts, feelings or frustrations at any given moment. My notes were also to help her doctors understand her condition better so she could receive the best treatment, and so I co ..read more

By Marianne Sciucco, New York, US We are stunned and saddened at the recent death of our friend and fellow author Wendy Mitchell, who passed on February 22. She was a passionate, dedicated advocate for dementia awareness who left an everlasting mark on dementia world. Diagnosed with young onset dementia in 2014 at the age of 58, Wendy chose to document her journey on a blog, Which me am I today?, sharing her daily triumphs and troubles, most often with photographs detailing the events of her day, including images of wildlife and landscapes she encountered on her daily “trundles.” “My blog is m ..read more