Care partners often experience a continuous and profound sense of loss and subsequent grief as they live through the changes associated with the progression of the disease. You may be grieving the losses that are occurring in your own life as well as in the life of the person with dementia.

Grieving is an up and down process. In the earlier stages of the person's dementia, you may swing between despair and wild optimism that a cure will soon be found. You may even deny that anything is wrong with the person and try to suppress your feelings. Later, if you have accepted the situation, you may find that there are periods when you can cope well and make the best of things. At other times, you may feel overwhelmed by sadness or anger, or you may simply feel numb.

Feelings like these are a normal part of grieving, but if you experience them, it is important to realize that you may be under a great deal of stress and you may need to seek emotional support for yourself.

In this session we will help you understand the grieving process and how to recognize grief.  You'll find out how grief can affect you throughout your journey as a care partner and you'll be introduced to options for getting the support you need to take care of yourself.  

Learning Objectives

When you have completed this session, you will be able to:

• Describe anticipatory grief.
• Know how to recognize the emotional impacts of grief.
• Recognize that different family members' approach to grieving can cause tension.
• Identify specific activities to enhance self-care in the later stages of dementia.
• Identify where and how to access community resources and support networks.

Work through the various parts of the session at your leisure.  Move from one part to another at your own pace and in the order that makes sense to you, based on your own needs and interests.

At any time, you may scroll to the Search bar at the top of the page and type a specific question or topic.