When someone you love has dementia, everything changes. We know how frightening and overwhelming this journey can feel.
What Is Dementia Care Coaching?
Dementia care coaching helps families understand and prepare for each stage of this progressive illness. We serve as your guide through the medical, emotional, and practical challenges ahead. We coordinate with your loved one’s doctors, review medications to prevent dangerous interactions, and teach you communication methods that reduce confusion and agitation.
Dementia is a terminal illness. While that’s hard to hear, knowing this truth helps families plan better care and make the most of the time you have together.
Understanding Dementia Progression
Dementia typically moves through three main stages: early, middle, and late. Each person’s journey is different, but understanding what might come next helps you feel more prepared and less afraid.
Early Stage: Your loved one might forget recent conversations, struggle with planning, or lose track of time. They can usually still do many daily tasks with some help.
Middle Stage: Confusion increases, and they need more help with daily activities like dressing and bathing. Personality changes and wandering can happen. This stage often lasts the longest.
Late Stage: Your loved one needs full-time care and may have trouble swallowing, walking, or speaking. They become more vulnerable to infections and other complications.
How We Support Your Family
Illness Navigation and Education: We help you understand what’s happening and what to expect next. No more confusing medical terms or scary surprises—we explain everything in plain language you can understand.
Medication Review and Safety: People with dementia often take multiple medications from different doctors. We review all medications to identify dangerous interactions and ensure your loved one takes them safely. This can prevent hospital visits and keep them more comfortable.
Validation Therapy Training: We teach you validation therapy—a communication method that honors your loved one’s feelings instead of correcting or arguing with them. This approach reduces agitation, helps them feel understood, and makes daily care less stressful for everyone.
Palliative and Hospice Care Guidance: As dementia progresses, palliative care can help manage symptoms and improve comfort—even while continuing treatment. When your loved one reaches the later stages, hospice care focuses on comfort, dignity, and quality of life. We help you know when these services are right and guide you through the process.
Coordinated Care Between Providers: We work with all your loved one’s doctors, specialists, and care teams to make sure everyone understands the current stage and care goals. This coordination prevents problems from falling through the cracks.
Planning for the End
All types of dementia eventually become terminal. While this is heartbreaking, preparing for this reality allows families to focus on comfort, create meaningful final memories, and ensure their loved one’s wishes are honored.
Hospice care for dementia can last weeks or months and provides pain management, symptom control, emotional support, and help for family caregivers. Research shows that people with dementia who receive hospice care have better end-of-life experiences with properly managed symptoms and excellent comfort care.
Supporting Grief Throughout the Journey
Dementia creates layers of grief that affect everyone involved. This grief is unique because it starts long before death and continues changing as the disease progresses.
For the Person With Dementia: In the early stages, many people with dementia are aware they’re losing abilities and independence. They grieve the future they planned, the activities they can no longer do, and the person they’re becoming. We help you understand how to support your loved one through these painful realizations with compassion and validation.
For Family Caregivers: You may experience what’s called anticipatory grief—mourning losses while your loved one is still alive. This includes grieving the relationship you once had, the conversations you can no longer share, and the future you expected together. Many caregivers also feel ambiguous loss—your loved one is physically present but psychologically absent. These feelings are normal and don’t mean you love them any less.
Research shows that caregivers who experience anticipatory grief and ambiguous loss report higher levels of depression and anxiety. The constant uncertainty and emotional pain can feel overwhelming. We provide grief support throughout the entire dementia journey—from diagnosis through death and beyond.
After Death: Many caregivers feel relief when their loved one dies, then feel guilty about that relief. These conflicting emotions are completely normal after such a long, difficult journey. We continue supporting you through bereavement as you adjust to life after caregiving ends.
You Don’t Have to Face This Alone
Caring for someone with dementia is one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. The confusion, personality changes, and slow loss of the person you knew can break your heart. But with the right support, education, and care coordination, you can navigate this journey with more confidence and peace.
We combine years of hospice and palliative care nursing experience with specialized knowledge of dementia care. We understand both the medical side of dementia and the emotional toll it takes on families. We’re here to teach, guide, and support you through every stage—from diagnosis to end-of-life care.
Ready to Talk?
We offer free conversations to help you understand how dementia care coaching can support your family. You can meet with us by phone or video call from anywhere. We can also meet in person if you’re in Madison County, Kentucky or the surrounding areas.
Schedule a free conversation to see how we can guide and support you through your loved one’s dementia journey.
You don’t have to face this alone. We’re here to help you every step of the way.