Our friends at Family Caregivers Center of Mercy are celebrating five years of supporting family caregivers! Join them for a virtual celebration event looking back on their first five years, looking ahead to the future and hearing a special guest presentation.
The text of the event flyer reads as follows:
It’s Time to Celebrate
The Family Caregivers Center is 5 years old!
In December, the Family Caregivers Center will be celebrating five years of providing education, resources and support to family caregivers. You are invited to join us virtually as we look back to where the Center started and share our plans for the future!
Featuring a presentation from special guest & author: “The Gifts of Dementia” by Judy Cornish
Thurs. December 10 | 5:30 to 7 p.m.
To join the celebration via Zoom:
· Visit www.zoom.us/ and click on “Join a Meeting.” Enter the Meeting ID: 997 6582 4646 and Passcode: 161022.
You can call-in by dialing #1-888-788-0099 and entering the Meeting ID and Passcode listed above when prompted.
Please call the Family Caregivers Center at (319) 221-8866 with any questions!
About Judy Cornish
Judy Cornish lives in Idaho where she developed the DAWN Method through keen observation of and successful interaction with people living with dementia. Her experience as an elder law attorney taught her to be observant and pay attention to details. Judy also has a background in literature, languages and fine arts. The DAWN Method enables families to keep loved ones, home longer, with less stress and more comfort. Judy is the author of The Dementia Handbook: How to Provide Dementia Care at Home and Dementia with Dignity: Living Well with Alzheimer’s or Dementia Using the DAWN Method.
Why I am Excited Judy Cornish is “Coming” to Cedar Rapids
Dave, my husband, lived with the visual variant of Alzheimer’s for 12 years after diagnosis. He died in 2015. When I read Judy’s Dementia with Dignity, I found myself wishing her approach would have been available when I was determining how best to interact with Dave.
Here are some of Judy’s ideas/concepts that resonated with me:
Focus on the person, not the dementia
Focus on the pattern of skills and abilities that remain available
Stereotypical problems of dementia have one root cause: the emotional distress that people living with dementia experience when they undergo changing cognitive abilities and become less able to communicate or perform once-easy tasks
While the cognitive abilities of people living with dementia decline, the intuitive abilities remain and sometimes increase
When interacting with the person living with dementia, the caregiver can help the person by supplying the cognitive thinking needed to successfully accomplish or perform once-easy tasks
Likewise, by focusing on the remaining and increasing intuitive thinking ability of the person living with dementia, the caregiver can ensure more pleasant interactional outcomes
Judy’s method (called the DAWN Method) makes so much sense and is easy to understand. I hope you will join us on December 10 and find Judy’s approach as useful as I do!
-Kathy Good, Director, Family Caregivers Center
For more information on the DAWN Method, visit: https://thedawnmethod.com