The Birth of a Revolution in Dementia Care – Yes! It’s Real! with Dr. Ethelle Lord and Mr. Bill P...

In this episode of the Truth, Lies Alzheimer’s Show, host Lisa Skinner interviews Dr. Etelle Lord, a pioneer in dementia coaching and creator of the Transactional Dementia Intelligence (TDI) system, and Bill Pemberton, CEO of Stratos Communications and executive of the International Caregivers Association (ICA). Dr. Lord recounts her 21‑year personal caregiving journey, the shortcomings she observed in existing dementia care models, and how she built a systems‑based business model that integrates management, staff, and family caregivers. She explains the core components of TDI – a licensed, year‑long program that restructures staffing (e.g., 6‑hour CNA shifts, a new “dementia coach” role), aligns financial incentives, and reduces burnout. Lord also introduces her “Psychology of the Dementia Brain” (DeLort’s Theory), adapting Transactional Analysis ego‑state concepts to guide communication with people living with dementia. Bill expands on the business implications, describing how ICA aims to professionalize dementia caregiving, create career pathways, and scale the model globally (Asia, Middle East). The conversation covers the looming dementia epidemic (WHO/Alzheimer’s Association projections), caregiver burnout, a five‑year caregiving timeline, types of caregivers, and the need for education and support. The guests promote their resources – the ICA website (icacares.org), upcoming books (Alzheimer’s Coaching 3rd edition, The Gift of Dementia), and training programs – urging listeners to seek reliable information, avoid erroneous sources, and connect with the ICA community.
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Are you caring for a loved one with dementia? You don't have to figure this out all on your own. Welcome to Truth, Lies Alzheimer's, the show that helps you reimagine a new relationship with your loved one, a relationship a little more free of stress and anxiety. Join host Lisa Skinner and her 30+ years of experience as she guides you on a new path to a better relationship with those you care for. Here's Lisa.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to another brand new episode of The Truth, Lies Alzheimer's Show. I'm Lisa Skinner, your host, and I am so super excited today because I have two very special guests with me here. That are going to share some really exciting and valuable information with all of you. So thank you so much for spending part of your day with us. And without further ado, I am going to introduce you to my first guest. Her name is Dr. Atel Lord, and she actually is a pioneer in dementia coaching and the creator of the first business model in dementia care. She's a master dementia coach, a dementia innovator, and soon to be an author. A book is coming out very, very soon. And she really has an extraordinary story to share with us today. She's responsible for what she calls the birth of a revolution in dementia care. And she tells us that every breakthrough begins with a story. And she's going to tell you that story in just a few minutes. But before we jump into her story, I'd also like to introduce you to Our other guest, his name is Mr. Bill Pemberton. He is the founder and CEO of Stratos Communications. And, uh, he works mostly on the agency side but has specialized in accounts related to healthcare, senior housing, financial services, food service, and architecture. He has very deep roots in technology, energy, automotive, construction, and real estate. So he also serves as the general manager and executive vice president of growth for Atell's company organization called the International Caregivers Association. And she's going to tell us all about that right now. So, Atell, Welcome to the show. And Bill, welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you here today.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. I've been really looking forward to this ever since I met the two of you. And just finally the day has come. Atal, could you start us off by sharing with us what inspired you to create the organization that you have created and also the TDI training program that you've created, because you really have an extraordinary story, a very inspirational story behind what led you to kind of blaze this trail. So why don't we just start with that and you can share your backstory with us?
Yes, thank you very much, Lisa Skinner Skinner, for the introduction. I appreciate it. Very honored to be with you here today, having the opportunity to talk to you. Thank you. So the ICA, which is International Caregivers Association, is really an extension of Remembering 4U, which was strictly an organization set up to give information to family caregivers who could not find the proper information. There was information then, like over 2 decades ago, but most of it was erroneous.
Yes.
And so I wanted people to know what's the most appropriate. And I was in actually family caregiver mode at that point. I was there for 21 years. So in 21 years, I observed just about every aspect of dementia care possible, including the management of dementia care, and realized that there should be a different system, that what they were using was not very effective, apparently financially as well, because they had sustainable issues. And then management for sure was inappropriate. I had to be with my husband practically every day to protect him, to provide for him, even though he was already in long-term care after family caregiving stage was over for him.. And so I looked at everything from home care to independent living to assisted living and then to skilled nursing. I put that all together. I could tell what was missing. While I was looking at that, I practiced as though I was their dementia coach, and there were several places that he was in. So I was able to try it in different locations in the state of Maine, but dementia care is the same everywhere globally. And they pretty well need the same type of care and protection. So that's how I— that's how it started.
Well, I actually have had the identical experience to what you're explaining to us. I've been working with families for 30 years now, and I have been hearing the same exact frustration from the thousands of family members that I have worked with, telling me We just can't find resources. We just can't find resources. And I think things are changing maybe a little bit from even pre-COVID, but we still have a long, long way to go. And my personal feeling is with the projections being given to us by the World Health Organization and the, um, Alzheimer's Association telling us, preparing us, trying to raise awareness that just in the next 25 years, the number of people who are going to be developing Alzheimer's disease worldwide will— is expected to almost triple from the number of people. And that tells me there is a tsunami on its way. And I don't know if you feel the same way I do, Attell, but we as a society just are not prepared for the number of people who are expected to develop Alzheimer's disease if a cure or a treatment is not found by then. And people will continue to be reactive versus proactive without the type of programs that you've developed and that I teach to help make people's dementia journey a lot easier to cope with because it's a long, long drawn-out progression of disease? You mentioned your husband had it for 21 years—
yes!
Was that from the onset of his symptoms?
Yes, on set up his symptoms, and you're correct in this sense that it's going to augment but let's not lie, Lisa Skinner Skinner, Let's not lie right now. There is no cure for dementia. First of all, when you have a diagnosis that's been going for 20, 25 years in the brain and the brain's already started to atrophy, they can show it. And so it's important to get to recognize erroneous information and to recognize right now that you need a systems approach to this condition. There's no way around it. And so the, the Transactional Dementia Intelligence that I designed looks at everything from the management ownership to janitors and saves money and includes family caregivers, reduces the hours that the CNA, certified nurse assistant, has to work. Because in my 21 years, I observed that the CNA is the person that actually does 90% to 95% of the work, and that 6 hours is plenty for them. 6 hours of work like that, but paid for 8 hours under the Transactional Dementia Intelligence Systems approach. It is a business model. It's not a program. It's not a method. It's a systems approach. It's a business model. That's what it is.
Do you want to elaborate on that a little bit more so our listeners can kind of get a little bit better idea of exactly what's involved in your system?
Yes. Well, a lot of it is proprietary information. It's a licensed program for 1 year. They have to renew yearly because we want accountability and responsibility to be very clear. We're dealing with human lives and we're also dealing with business outcome. So it has to be designed in that fashion. I'll let Bill speak a little bit about that and then I'm going to continue the conversation because I did create also another theory in dementia. There's several theories. My theory is psychology of the dementia brain, which changes the way people attract the attention of the person, no matter what, how advanced they are or how little advanced they are. So that, for example, when you talked about taking a bath or cleaning up, you can get their attention. Without getting their attention, you don't have any authority and the responsibility never gets realized. So I'll let Bill speak to the business and then I'll take over again. Thank you.
Okay, Bill, so happy to have you here.
No, it's a fascinating subject. I was actually transfixed when one day out of the blue, Dr. Lord contacted me and said, look, I've got a new model here and I need to communicate that and I need to get that out to the public. And so she began to unwind it for me and she kept saying, first of all, I've been in senior living for about 17 years in marketing, so I was already clued into dementia issues and so forth. And she said, I want to do a systems approach. And she has a great book, actually had a book out and has a book out. It's in revision now about a systems approach. The idea being, if you don't have a sustainable total system, it doesn't matter how good and effective what you're doing is. And the solutions that she was talking about wasn't just what happens between staff and people living with dementia, but what happens between staff and ownership. There's a lot of— we all know that the big bugaboo is burnout. You talk to anybody in the dementia care industry and you said, what's your major problem? Burnout, because it's just such a heavy, heavy load. And Dr. Lord is really an expert on burnout. She went through 21 years with her husband and really had some very, very threatening personal situations where she found out that it had become kind of an undertow pulling her out and wearing her out. So there had to be something to keep the staff needed to be better communication between the business people in the organization and the frontline people. It's traditionally been sort of a pyramid and top-down, and a lot of the people at the ground level staff have ideas, but they're not really listened to. So she introduced some new elements to it, including a dementia coach, which is a brand new position, a formal position that acts as a liaison to make sure Instead of having a pyramidal top-down, it becomes a circle of care. And really, the person that really is calling the shots is the dementia coach. So it's— it offered a fascinating capacity for companies to— and care staff to be in alignment. And it was all about if we can deliver much better care, keep our people from burning out, not have to pay for turnover. The cost of turnover is huge, but it's a hidden cost and people don't realize it. But if they— when people say 6-hour, when she says 6-hour shift, they go, what, how are we going to afford that? Well, when you put back into the till all of the money, because in some cases CNAs turn over 100% in some of these care communities and even at home, and that's before you get to the cost of the individual. So So we decided if we could take her message about how to put together a complete systems approach where you have a culture top-down, inside-out, where everybody's on the same page, where it's the best care, and, and you can communicate that to the public and you can re— attract and retain help, you would have a viable business model. So I'm kind of scratching the surface of it, but hopefully that gives you a little bit of a idea. I think what sets TDI apart is it has a much grander scope. It has— it's not looking for a Band-Aid, it's looking for a structural reformation within the dementia care industry, which is really an obsolete model brought in from the medical world. And so it— we're beginning to see it really does make a difference and, and raises everybody's energy level. There's so much more I could say, and I've already said a lot, so I'm going to hand it back over to, to you and Dr. Lord.
I love the way you explained all that. It was very easy to follow.
Thank you.
My pleasure.
Ironically, I was listening to a program this morning that had to do with AI and how you can simulate the brain and maybe answer questions like if somebody keeps repeating, did I eat breakfast this morning? Or are we going to the store? Are we going to the store? Maybe 20 times they'll ask that. Then this program was going to answer for them. And actually, and they were insinuating that some of the things they might be talking about on this app would be that they would stimulate the brain, ask questions so that the person can feel more intelligent or whatever. But dementia is a real specialty. And as I said, when you get a diagnosis, you're already in an advanced condition. And that means that, and my theory was adapted from Transactional Analysis, which I've used since 1992. I've had a lot of courses, training, certification in it, then used it when I was a mental health counselor in private practice. I've used it in management coaching when I had Teamwork Development Associates. And so I know the theory very well. And I realized that it was a I could adapt that to dementia care because I realized that the parent ego state— there's three ego states: parent, adult, and child. The parent ego state that houses judgment, rationality, logic, even your language, all that is affected. And so I immediately saw that that needs to be taken over by a care provider. In other words, when the person needs to go to the dentist or the doctor, the caregiver needs to make that appointment for that person because it's to save their life sometimes. It's as serious as that. And when they need to be clean, when they need to take a shower or a bath, that's a decision, a judgment decision that they cannot make. And so I realize that if the care provider can take and form a symbiosis, which is a healthy symbiosis, there are most symbiosis are unhealthy, but this one is healthy. Take that, those properties over for that person. They are left actually with the adult ego state and the child ego state to the time of their death. But you have to understand that. Once you understand that, you can work with those two ego states and they feel pretty good. They feel protected. I did that with my husband and other people as well as I was testing dementia coaching in all these other institutions and communities. And settings, I found that that worked very well. And so I said, I'm going to create that. I called it the DeLort's Theory, which is the psychology of the dementia brain. Once a caregiver or a family caregiver, even it begins at home, right? If they understand that, it's a lot less challenging. There's less conflict between them and the person living with dementia. Don't have to force them into the parent ego state, which they get lost. So by the time they are diagnosed, that's already faulty. So they may say to you, I already brushed my teeth, when in fact they did not. You have to know the difference and how to handle that, how to tell them, you know. So that's really important. I think that's at the basis, the very basis of communication And unless we understand that, as caregivers, our work is a lot more difficult, and the life of the person living with dementia becomes almost impossible. So we want to do, resolve both of that, and that theory will take care of that. That's what I realized.
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. One of the things that I've observed in the time that I've been active in working with families is really the way we respond to persons living with cognitive decline, cognitive dysfunction, is actually counterintuitive to the way that we instinctively want to. Would you agree with that?
Absolutely, because we're in denial. Most of family caregivers are actually in denial. I have some people that 2 years after their loved one died, they came to me and said, "I didn't realize how sick my husband was," or, "I didn't know how confused my wife was." And that's after death. So wouldn't it be nice to know that before death, how the brain works for the person living with dementia and respect that?
Yes. Yes. And I think that that really is the key to positive outcomes versus a lot of the negative outcomes that caregivers and family members experience because they haven't had the opportunity to retrain, change their paradigm, or retrain the way they think about this disease and respond to a lot of the signs, symptoms, behaviors that we see. And that takes a lot of education. It takes a lot of training, and it takes a lot of skill. And this is why so many people, I think, go into taking on this challenge, and they're not prepared.
I agree, they're not prepared, and that's why the theory of the dementia brain, The brain is so easy to learn and has such a great outcome. It's not that complicated once they understand that. And it makes everybody a lot happier, a lot safer. That's really important to do. Now, one thing we didn't mention, and I did provide a lot of them when I was remembering for you, is the fact that there is a timeline for family caregiving. And 5 years is absolutely the limit. At 5 years, you have 3 choices. You either get sick, you burn out, or you die as a caregiver. So it's very serious. And most, most caregivers don't know that. In my book, Alzheimer's Coaching, I have found that when I did my research, there's 5 types of caregivers. It's only about 2% are natural caregivers. You don't have to tell them anything. They instinctively know what to do and they adapt very quickly. And it's as if it's water off the back of a duck. It's very natural for them. But the rest of them, the bulk of them are really not expecting that and they don't know where to go with that when the responsibility begins. And let me tell you, if you had to work for anyone 24/7, a nurse 24/7. Nobody could sustain that, but that's what we ask a family caregiver to do without, without any problem. We are asked to do that. So I think that in the transactional dementia intelligence, eventually I think governments will have to step in and help family caregivers, because how I see it going in the direction of family caregiving and also assistance with adult daybreak or adult daycare as a companion to family caregiving. Because let me tell you, being in a very variety of communities, and before that when I was a paralegal for Legal Services for the Elderly before my husband ever got sick, I saw a lot of communities that were totally unacceptable and people stuck in a basement, something like that. In a community, not at home, but in a community. I'm sure some are at home as well, in the basement. So I think if we could avoid any type of long-term care would be absolutely ideal, except if they have a TransActional Dementia Intelligence license. As far as even the Middle East is concerned, where they keep their loved ones at home, they feel it's an honor. It's a responsibility and they don't say anything about it, although they suffer the same sickness, burnout, and death as anybody else, but they will keep them home. When I presented the TDI model in Asia, they said, in the Middle East, they said, "We would take that because you're allowing us to go and follow the loved one." In the TDI model, Transactional Dementia Intelligence, As a family caregiver, we expect you to follow. And you know what? We will train you. We will tell you everything about that philosophy. We will tell you everything, and you'll be able to participate in the actual care of your loved one. You can come night or day. It's up to you. We welcome you.
Let me ask you this, and I ask all my guests this, but I think in your case, It's going to be particularly valuable given where you started and how far you've come in the years, you know, during which you cared for your husband. And you probably felt as though you were figuring this all out with a blindfold on in the very early part of your journey. To help others. What would you say was your most valuable lesson learned by the end of your caregiving to your husband that you wished you knew from the very beginning, that you had to learn through the school of hard knocks? Because I think So many people would love to hear some guidance in that.
That's such an easy question for me.
Okay. It's not for everybody, but I'm not surprised it is for you.
So easy. So easy. And I know everybody will relate to this. This is how easy it is. It's the fact that I noticed even in at home care when I had home people, home care people come in. How undertrained and sometimes overworked they were and how they needed to change that. And that continued everywhere we went, which told me, don't leave him alone. I had to be there. I had to be there to assist them, to even train them how to speak with them. They didn't know how to speak Alzheimer's. And that's such an easy thing to learn, right? Everybody needs to know that you don't access the parent ego state, otherwise you're going to be in trouble. If you ask a question that requires thinking and remembering, you're going to be in trouble because they immediately fall into that trouble area. They cannot remember. They will give you any information that they find in their brain thinking it's right. And people will argue with them. I saw that happening over and over again and not respecting the person that lives with that condition. You don't push them. You take your time. You look at them. You love them. You protect them, and you provide for them.
Well, I have to, I have to say, just from my own personal experience, and I don't know if you're aware of this, but I personally have had 8 family members who have lived with one of the brain diseases that causes dementia, not to mention the, you know, working in that space and just helping thousands of families over the decades, but seems almost impossible to manage in a positive manner this disease until you figure out what's happening to the brain of the people who live with it. And then all of a sudden, at least for me and other people that I've observed, that light bulb all of a sudden goes off and— or goes on and say, okay, this really makes sense now. But you have to— we have to get to the point where all those dots become connected before that light bulb finally gives you clarity and go, okay, this whole thing now finally makes makes sense. But there's a lot of pieces that need to be constructed in that puzzle before you get to that point. Do you agree with that?
Yes, I agree with that. In my husband's case, in his own family of origin, there were at least 12 people, maybe more, that had dementia. It was familial, the familial type, which— so I saw a lot of it. And of course, like you, I saw a lot of people— I've seen a lot of people that live with dementia. Let me tell you something. Dementia is a gift. It's a gift because if you really appreciate what that person is going through, and being a woman myself, I'm nurturing. I was actually happy when my husband got the diagnosis because a person with dementia, if you take proper care of them, they actually welcome everything that you are proposing or doing for them.
If you know how to go about it in a very positive manner. Otherwise, it can be, you know, I know, I know what you're— crisis.
Yes, I know what you're saying, but everybody is hardwired for 4 feelings: sad, glad, and mad, and scared. You have to respect that. And that's going to come out big time with somebody with dementia, right? So The Gift of Dementia: A Gift We Have Yet to Unwrap is the title of my next book. And I will be able to show how truly gifted that condition can be instead of being a curse. Or in Africa, they think it's— they're possessed. So we have a lot to do, but in the Psychology of the Dementia Brain, which we offer online 24/7, half price right now, if they go to icacares.com, they'll learn about that. And they need to learn about that early. Doctors need to know about it so they can tell the patient when they come in and say, "I suspect dementia," or "I suspect Alzheimer's," or "I suspect some other type of cognitive challenge," they can say, "Take this course and then you'll know what the brain is doing." You have to know what you're dealing with.
Oh, exactly, exactly.
So, you know, we don't want to train them or treat them as children, but let me tell you, a 2-year-old or a 5-year-old, you wouldn't give them responsibility for your bank account, would you?
No.
All right. So it's the same thing that requires the parent ego state to really be sharp. So you wait till they're adults or they're 12. At age 12, the age of reasoning begins. You may trust them with some things like babysitting, collecting so much money per hour. You start at that stage. So a person with dementia, you have to protect them just as much as you would a child. That really cannot make a proper decision. They can make decisions, but they will be faulty.
Very true, very true. And I can attest to everything that Dr. Lord has been sharing with us. I have seen just such 180-degree turnarounds, people living with dementia caused affected by one of these brain diseases live very meaningful, purposeful, joyful, happy lives if the people involved in their life possesses this information that we are talking about today. It is so crucial. And once you see the difference of what Dr. Lord is talking about, it will change everybody's life and change it for the better. You don't have to live with every minute of your existence being under just unbelievable stress. You can enjoy the person you're caring for, and that's really what this is all about. Is spending quality time with the person that you're caring for, the people that you love. And trust us, this is attainable and it is achievable. We have witnessed it firsthand over and over and over again. But it takes knowing the information, having a plan, having a strategy. You want to speak to Do you have anything to add to that, Dr. Lord?
Yes. You mentioned earlier in the conversation about education, and there's so much more available now for us to access. So just be careful. Some of it is erroneous. If they come to me with something like that, I can point it out for sure because I know where maybe the source is culprit for me or the information is not complete. So it's very good to, you know, to have somebody that you can talk to, that you can trust, like yourself, Lisa, with the experience that you have. And also to get a coach, maybe with the dementia coaches we're training now, is very important. That's going to be all over the world. I love that idea.
I absolutely love that idea. And I think it just seems to me like a no-brainer, but absolutely necessary.
I wanted to just say that organizationally, kind of coming from the business point of view, one of the primary thrusts of ICA is to transform the role of dementia caregiver. And by that I mean this: so often when you— we— any of us visit someone in a dementia care community, it's immediately— you can cut the tension with a knife— it's a downer for a lot of people, right? A lot of places I go, and it's just an immediate downer. Because the people there don't really know how to interact. And amazingly, when you talk to these people and you ask them about their training, they don't— most of them don't have any real training. And so what they get is they get a lot of people who, for whatever reason, can't really get other kinds of careers or jobs, and they work there till they burn out and, and/or burn out the people that they're working with. But our commitment is to transform this through a trajectory of training materials to make this the elite healthcare profession. It's the hardest job in my view. It's the hardest care job in, in the healthcare area. Dealing with people with dementia can be extended. It's never really easy, but it can be a lot easier. And so really equipping people to not only have the training, but then give them a track up to improve and build a career out of it. Increase their income, give them something to feel better about what they're doing, uh, and taking better care of the people with that. And then putting the dementia coach we talked about in there, it really can create a place people might actually like to go to work and, and be, be fresh enough when they come home to their families that they can have a productive family life. So just wanted to add in that, that recasting that career track and Making that the elite healthcare track really is at the core of our overall goals. Not going to happen in a day or 2 days or a year, but that's our end goal. One of them.
Yeah, I think that that is an excellent point. And for all of our caregivers out there, imagine what your life would be like. And just to kind of press rewind for one second. I want to just piggyback on something that Dr. Lord said. The number one reason why family members stop visiting is because it is so uncomfortable and so intimidating because you never know what's going to come out of the mouth of the person that you're going to visit.
How—
what would your world look like If you went to visit your mother in a memory care community and she started calling you by a different name, she didn't recognize you as her daughter. I have had so many of my clients tell me that that cuts to the core. It is so hurtful. But if you understand the underlying reason why they may not recognize you at that very moment and start calling you a different name, then it's a lot easier to be empathetic to what's happening with them and not take it personally. Or that you go and visit your father in the memory care and he starts asking about your mother who passed away years earlier, but he believes she's still alive and well and wondering why she 'You didn't come to visit,' and we give you the tools that can— that you would know an effective and positive way to respond to that false belief that he was having at that moment. And then you can actually enjoy your visit and not be intimidated and not feel stressed out because you just don't know how to respond to him in insisting that your mother is still alive. These are all the things that we have learned through our education and our experience that we can help people just, you know, have such a better experience throughout the years as this disease progresses all the way from the beginning to the very end, which for a lot of you probably seems like it might sound like an impossibility unless you have learned what we have learned.
Yes, yes. Well, that's just an indication if they miss— mix, uh, the, the person, and that's happened to so many people, happened to me as well. Yeah, it's just an indication that the brain at that point has been atrophied and that memory is not there. So when you say the person visiting feels bad, imagine how the person that is living with dementia feels, because they still have feeling to the time of death.
Absolutely.
So I would say show more empathy and welcome that because it's really an indicator of how far they've gone with that condition. And of course, some of them are not even verbal at the end. So you know that's progressing and then maybe the end is near. So that we have to be more, show more empathy and have knowledge of the brain and what's happening to that person. There's nothing, nobody can stop it. Nothing, but I'll invite people to go to the icacares.com to see what products can help even the person living with dementia, but more so the caregiver, because I want to stop the burnout. There's no need to burn out, but you will burn out if you don't know what you need to know and know when to pull off, when to go ahead, when to back up. So we have all that knowledge now. Let's work together.
Well said. Before we wrap up, is there anything that you feel that we haven't had an opportunity to cover that you'd like to share, either one of you, Dr. Lord or Bill, before we conclude this episode today?
Would it, would it be possible to include the web address for the folks at home?
Absolutely.
To ICA, it's very simple. It's just www.icacares.org. Cares.com. There's only so much we can cover in an hour, and there's so much more information there, and we would invite whoever, you know, has time and interest to go out there and take a look. You have more questions, we have a world of resources that we can make available to give you a little bit more drill down into what Transactional Dimension Intelligence really means, because it is, it is transforming the experience. That's, that's all I really appreciate deeply the opportunity to share the story here today, and you've asked excellent questions.
And I, I just want to emphasize, I don't think this can be overstated, that everything that the three of us have shared with you and talked about today is real. I mean, it is a real possibility that you as caregivers and family members who are going through this really hard heartbreaking time in your life, you can achieve much, much more positive outcomes. And all it takes is knowledge and information and maybe changing your thinking process just a little bit. Dr. Lorge, is there anything you'd like to add to this really deep, dynamic conversation that the three of us have been having today?
I just want to leave, leave with this message that the caregiver— I'm speaking to the caregiver directly— please know that you're not alone and I'm here for you.
That's wonderful to know because so many people do feel alone and hopeless and helpless and don't know who to turn to. So appreciate everything that you guys are doing. It is such a, just a huge need out there and It's not going to stop anytime soon. So keep up all the good work that you're doing. When does your new book come out, by the way?
It'll be in the fall. The third edition of Alzheimer's Coaching is coming in the fall, and the other one will come the next, in 2026 or 2027. It's still in the process of being written. The Gift of Dementia is being written now, and I have all the notes on it, everything. I have an editor and I have a publisher.
Well, you want to definitely keep your eyes peeled for that because this is a woman who knows what she's talking about. And do not take that lightly because she can help all of you through this very, very difficult time. And that's what we're here for, right, Dr. Lord? I mean, that's why I keep doing what I do. And, um, you know, I Every time I think that maybe through my program, through this show, Truth, Lies Alzheimer's, I've been able to help at least one person out there, then it just makes my day. It makes my life. It just makes me feel like I have really truly made a difference. In somebody's life. So that's all of our goals. There's no denying that. I know it's true of you. I know that's true of Bill. I know it's true of me, and I know it's true of my right arm, Marilyn, who is with me every step of the way. And that's why we do what we do, because this is such a difficult time in everybody's life, and we want to find a way to help you have a better time through it. Thank you so much for sharing your story, for sharing what you're doing and raising awareness that these possibilities are out there for people now. And I hope people, you know, do take it one step farther and go to your website and, and dig a little deeper into this innovative way of approaching dementia care. There's nothing like it. So appreciate you being here. You too, Bill. And if there's nothing else that you'd like to say, then I guess we will say goodbye to all of my wonderful listeners out there. We thank you for being here every week. We hope we're bringing you invaluable information that will help your life be a little easier. And as always, what I say is, we'll be back next week with another brand new episode of The Truth, Lies Alzheimer's Show. I'm your host, Lisa Skinner. Have a great, healthy, happy week, and we'll see you back here next week.
Thank you for listening to Truth, Lies Alzheimer's. We hope you found something in today's episode that helps. We understand that caring for a loved one with dementia can be the challenge of a lifetime, but you don't have to do it alone. If you're ready for exclusive access to even more great content and resources, head on over to Facebook and join Join Lisa Skinner's Minding Dementia support group. We're a community of like-minded caregivers, and we're here to help.
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