WHY you should join a dementia support group

Transcript

I’m constantly telling people to join a support group. I have found over the years that if I call something a support group, like a virtual support group, people are less likely to attend than if I call it a name of a webinar, like, “We’re going discuss behaviors in dementia and hallucinations.” Then people show up. But at the end of those webinars, what happens? Everybody wants to talk. Everyone’s got so many questions. And what I end up doing is usually going accidentally over time because people have so many questions. So I’m constantly telling people to come to my support groups. I do a support group as of right now, every second Thursday of the month, and it’s a great opportunity to come and get some free dementia care assistance.

And it’s not just because you get to talk to me because honestly, that’s not really what it’s there for. I really want you to come to the support group because you’re going to get to talk to other care partners, other people who have a spouse who is living with dementia, other people who have a parent living with dementia, a sibling living with dementia, or a friend. Whoever they are, they’re the ones who really, you know, are going to be able to help you because you’re all there to help each other. And no doubt some of the questions that you have for me or for them, someone’s going to be able to answer. And there have been plenty of times where I don’t even know the answer to a question, especially if it’s like a state-specific question, but sometimes there’s somebody there from your state and they’re like, oh, this happened to me and I know who you could contact.

So, really think about coming to a support group. If you’re watching this video, you know, you’re like, ah, okay, I’ll think about it seriously. Just come, just try it. You can just sit, you can have your camera off. If you want to, you don’t have to say anything. Coming to a support group is an excellent way to get your one-to-one questions answered about dementia, not just by me, but by other people who are very much in your boat or in a really similar nearby adjacent boat. So these are all great ways to get help so truly consider it! And if you can’t bring yourself to come to something with the phrase support group attached to it, come to one of my webinars and we will get you in that way. Thanks.

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Rachael Wonderlin is an internationally-recognized dementia care expert and consultant. She has a Master’s in Gerontology and is the author of three published books with Johns Hopkins University Press. Rachael owns Dementia By Day, a dementia care consulting and education company.

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