No RVing this Summer: The Cleveland International Lewy Body Dementia Conference Instead.

The second blog on the series of When Nothing Works will be here next week but this week, we wanted to make an announcement about our summer plans. We wanted our readers to know what was happening so that perhaps you could join us in Las Vegas later this month.

This year we are staying in Arizona for most of the summer. Jim has decided that the time has come for us to quit RVing. We both have issues that make this a smart, if unwelcome choice. Although we will miss RVing, we know that this is like the choice to stop driving altogether. It needs to be done before the minor problems cause bigger ones...and it works best when it is the driver who chooses to stop.

But we are going to take a couple of trips in our car. The first will be to Las Vegas, where we will be joining many other LBD caregivers, advocates and professionals at the Cleveland International Lewy Body Dementia Conference. On Tuesday, June 25, we will be presenting a poster: Non-drug Approaches for Care Partners to Use When a Loved One Living with LBD has Behavioral Changes. Rosemary Dawson ED.D., who moderates the Caring Spouses and Life After Lewy groups and is very active with the LBDA, will be with us. In fact, she is the one who designed the poster with our input.

Our poster shows a a variety of non-drug methods for dealing with behaviors, most of them also included in our book, Responsive Dementia Care: Fewer Behaviors Fewer Drugs. If you come to the conference (and we hope you can!) be sure to come by and talk with us!

The conference is three days long with lots of LBD related subjects. It is divided into a Scientific Track and a Patient and Caregiver Track. We've attended both kinds and believe me, this is a blessing for those of us who aren't up on all the scientific language. However, we hope that if there is something we especially want to learn that isn't being presented in the caregiver track, we can cross over.

We are looking forward to learning more about biomarkers and imaging and much more to pass on to all of you.  Here is the brochure. Check it out and plan to come join us if you can. We'd love to meet you there!

For more information about Lewy body disorders, read our books:
A Caregivers’ Guide to Lewy Body Dementia
Managing Cognitive Issues in Parkinson's and Lewy Body Dementia
Responsive Dementia Care: Fewer Behaviors Fewer Drugs
Riding A Roller Coaster with Lewy Body Dementia: A Manual for Staff

Helen and James Whitworth are not doctors, lawyers or social workers. As informed caregivers, they share the information here for educational purposes only. It should never be used instead of a professional's advice.