Podcast - The Positive Brain

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Helping people with dementia during difficult times, not feel isolated, starts with understanding how to connect with people.  Understanding what give people pleasure and purpose, can help you tap into someone's inner strength that you may have thought was gone.  Pauline Daniels shares her insight and experience working with people with Dementia.

Social distancing is a big deal right now!  Our seniors at home are a vulnerable population. How our home care companies are ensuring safety as well as care for this community?  Peggy and Toni speak with Bay Armstrong with Comfort Keepers, who shares what they are doing to help keep their clients safe and well cared for at home.  

As a licensed Assisted Living Administrator I would hear people refer to communities I was managing, as a "nursing home".  At times it was frustrating because they truly are different types of living situations.  They require different regulations to follow and different types of care planning.  Today Peggy and Toni speak with Tamara Fye, who has worked in and managed both Nursing Home communities and an Assisted Living Communities. She helps clear up some of the big differences and why they truly are not the same. 

With all the frustrations that have come from staying home due to the current Pandemic, there are some positive outcomes.  As we are all at home MUCH more than we have been, it gives us time to do some of those things we have been putting off.  Today Peggy and Toni speak with Lisa Geraci Rigoni, owner of The Organizing Mentors, who shares with us how starting to take control of your life may just be one box at a time.  Listen as she helps us "Capture Your Space Both Mentally and Physically." 

Is technology the way of the future for senior care?  Already there are many devices that can help seniors stay independent.  Today Peggy and Toni speak with Anthony Nunez, Chief Executive Officer with INF Care (Innovation for a New Frontier of Care), who shares his idea about how technology and "yes" robots can help older adults stay independent for longer.

 For more information on INF Care & Anthony Nunez, INF.CARE of FB at INFRobotics

 How to Choose Love with Diane Haworth
Have you ever had a day when all you wanted to do was to just slap someone? It is sometimes hard to look within ourselves and choose that loving response. Today Peggy & Toni talk with speaker, coach and Author of "How to Choose Love When you Just Want to Slap Someone", Diane Haworth. We look at how to understand others, what may be triggering our personal response and what we can do to "LOVE" instead of "SLAP". 

Contact Diane Haworth at dianehaworth.com or beloveprinciples.org

 Engagement with Family While Being at Home
After a few months of staying at home with our families, it can get difficult to stay engaged. If we are caring for someone with an illness, such as Alzheimer's Disease and related dementia's, it can seem like an endless task. Peggy & Toni speak with Mikki Fiore, Owner of Trovato, LLC. Mikki shares some insight about things that we can do to help engage families during this long term change in our lives. 

Contact Miki Firor at: www.trovatollc.com

It is hard to imagine that as our lives are being turned upside down, that we can find positive things to keep us going.  But in the famous words of Mick Jagger, "We can't always get what we want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need." If we look around, we can find that some of the recent changes in our lives have spawned some very positive things.
Peggy and Toni talk about how to stay positive during the current challenges, things you can do to ease anxiety and to think about the blessings we have in our world today.

Have you heard the term Adult Day Care?  Insight Memory Care is a Dementia Specific program designed to give respite to caregivers during the day and engagement for people with dementia care needs. Listen as Peggy Breda and Toni Reinhart, speak with Anita Irvin, Executive Director of Insight Memory Case as she shares some of the highlights that their program offers for families in the Fairfax County area of Northern Virginia.

Contact Insight at 703-204-4664 or visit their website at:  www.insightmcc.org

 Is it difficult to take your loved one with Dementia on an outing?  Do you wish there was a place who understood some of the challenges when dining with someone who has a cognitive impairment?  This week Toni Reinhart speaks to the owners of The Famous Toastery in Reston, VA to share what makes this restaurant an ideal place to dine for you and your loved one with dementia.  The Famous Toastery, has partnered with Dementia Friendly America - Herndon, to be one of only two restaurant in this area to offer dementia friendly dining. 

 Activities with Dementia

With the holidays approaching, it can get difficult to get your loved one involved during this time of year.  Listen when Peggy and Toni speak with Nicole McMonigle Knight, owner of Dementia Care Connections. They discuss ideas and activities to help you and your loved one continue to stay active, involved and engaged. 

 How to Hire a Home Health Aide

Peggy and Toni have talked about how to hire a Home Care Company.  But if you wanted to hire someone not through a licensed Home Care company, there are definitely things you need to know.  Peggy speaks with Toni about her experience in the Home Care industry and she shares some interesting facts that you may not know when making this very important decision for your loved ones care. 

Peggy and Toni talk with Laura Smothers-Chu about the challenges of caring for a parent when you are not close by.

When we get older losing our independence can be devastating.  We refuse the help we may need, so that people don't know we are struggling.  Peggy and Toni speak again with Marianne Buckley, Director of Care Management and Aging Life Care Manager of Core Wood Care, as she helps us find ways to normalize needing help and ensuring that the person in need gets the care that they need.

Many people are affected by Parkinson's Disease.  As with many diseases, we can feel lost and alone.  Sonia Gow, the Founder and President of The Parkinson's Social Network, shares how this grass roots organization is helping people with Parkinson's stay connected, active and social through companionship, cafe's and donuts!

Do you ever wonder why plants do better when you talk to them?  Peggy and Toni speak with Martha Brettschneider who is a writer, blogger and an award-winning photographer who has a passion for inspiring mindfulness, the practice of finding beauty in the present moment.  She shares her experience in the garden while raising children, balancing a stressful job and an illness and how that changed her life.

Looking for home care?  Where do you start? Peggy and Toni speak with Pam Reynolds, Director of Strategy & Partnerships with Allegiance Home Car, about the complexity of how to look and "vet" a home care company.

By now we have all heard of CBD.  But are you still scared to see what it is all about? Cheri Garvin, RPh, Owner & CEO of The Compounding Center, shares some very interesting facts about this controversial drug.  She also speaks to how it is helping so many people and the real "dirt" on how it works in your body.  Join Peggy &Toni as they speak candidly about CBD and how it is helping people with many different diagnoses.

 So many care partners find it difficult to find things to do with there loved ones with memory loss.  The Memory Cafe was designed so that both care partner and Dementia partner have the opportunity to relax and engage in a comfortable and welcoming setting.  
Explore some of the Memory Cafe's in the Northern Virginia area with Nicole McMonigle Knight, owner of Dementia Care Connections and Memory Cafe leader, when Peggy & Toni chat about how they work and why they are important to staying positive. 

 Let's talk about positivity!  Why stay positive?  Can it help your brain?  Can it help keep disease away?  Will staying positive reduce depression, anxiety? Is it possible to train yourself to be positive?  Take a minute to listen to the dynamic duo talk about staying positive! 

 Loneliness?  Positive?  What?  Today Peggy & Toni speak with MaryAnn Buckley, Aging Life Care Manager and Director of Care Management for Corewood Care, to speak about how to overcome loneliness and things people can do to help people recognize when their loved one might be lonely.  

Have you ever wanted to know what we can do to keep our brains healthy as we age?  Peggy Breda & Toni Reinhart speak with Dr. Steve Simmons as he shares some insight from his recently published book Brain Health As You Age

 When many of us think of Hospice we are overwhelmed and grieving for someone we love.  But hospice is a positive thing for those going through the dying process. Extra care, love, pain management and supportive services help to make up the many services that hospice can provide.  Listen as Jessica Ford, Area Manager for Patient Advocacy, with Capital Caring,  helps to explain what hospice is and how it can truly help the patient as well as their families at this time in life. 

Join Peggy Breda, A Family Tie and Toni Reinhart, Dementia Care Training, when they talk to Alan Yellowitz and Adam Mason, The Beat Goes On, about how their drumming programs for senior with dementia as well as for all groups of people, are helping to bring memories and positive experience to both young and old alike!