Dementia is known as a companion condition; it affects not only the person who is living with it, but also their family, friends, and the larger community. —Pathways, Section 7

Through personal experience as a care partner, and interactions with others in that role, Manual Contributor Pat Snyder learned what a difference attitude can make in a loved one’s dementia journey and that of the whole family.

Pat advocates for reframing the care partner experience with the 5 P’s:

• Be Positive: Positivity builds resilience and benefits your well-being. Identify and acknowledge negative feelings and activate ways to minimize their impact.
• Be Proactive: Be your loved one’s advocate, educate yourself, ask key questions, and build a support team (of friends, family members, colleagues, neighbors, and support group members) for you and your loved one.
• Be Perceptive: Be sensitive to your loved one’s evolving symptoms and triggers. Ask those you trust to be objective and share what they perceive as priorities to address as circumstances change.
• Be Persistent: Make the daily choice to be positive, to be proactive, to be perceptive—and to take breaks, too, to reduce stress.
• Preserve Your Loved One’s Personhood: Remember that your loved one is not their dementia. While dementia may impact their emotions and actions sometimes, they are always that same person who has been your partner, your parent, your friend.

You can make your life full and their life full and rich. It was that way until the very end. It does not have to be unhappy and unfulfilling, and it can be richer than you ever thought. [Cis] saved the best for the last 10 years. I grew more in the last 10 years than I ever had before… –Rushern Baker, Manual Guide

For more about the 5 P’s —visit Pathways, Section 7.4 (https://daanow.org/pathways/)