Dignify Dementia is a small, web-based non-profit organization located in Denver, Colorado, US. We promote dementia awareness and provide accurate information and support to individuals, families, and other care partners living with and navigating dementia. We aim to assist our visitors to get and stay connected to the most helpful and relevant resources, organized in thought and practice, and anchored to the present by emphasizing dignity and independence. We translate our aim into action by employing the products and services offered on our website, which include our complete dementia toolkit, our library of resources from health and wellness practitioners to end-of-life planning; and a monthly Facebook support group as well as a live chat with a professional, licensed clinical social worker specializing in gerontology and dedicated to service in the dementia field.
At Dignify Dementia, it is our mission to assist and support individuals, families, and other care partners living with and navigating dementia, to get and stay connected, organized, and grounded by emphasizing dignity and independence.
My commitment to public health, and my dad, Jim, who is dying of (but we like to say living with) Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinsonism are my motivation and inspiration for creating Dignify Dementia and doing this work. My mom (his wife of 54 years) and I are his primary care partners and have been since he was diagnosed in late 2018. We do our very best to care for him so he can stay in the home, but even with two of us, there are days when it is overwhelming and all-consuming for all 3 of us.
My dad is quite honestly my hero. He has this degenerative, fatal, and cruel disease and yet, he wakes up with a positive attitude most days and faces his dementia with tremendous courage. He has always been a man who tries to help others when he can, and one of the first questions he asked when we got his diagnosis was, how can we help other people like me? I told him we'd see what we could do to help him first, but then I promised him I'd find a way to help other people like him and other families like ours.
Based on what we were told by all the doctors and all the research I did on my own, he would likely feel the most comfortable with a routine. With that in mind, I developed a set of resources for him that he has used daily for the past five years. Even as his disease has caused significant declines both cognitively and physically, he still completes them every day. He says they help him “make sense of things” and says they “keep some of the crazy out” for him. From what my mom and I have observed, they help him engage with us and others, and they help him stay anchored in the present. After years of researching and tailoring this toolkit of resources for him and encouragement from his expansive healthcare network, I finally figured out how I could help him help others, so I started Dignify Dementia (www.dignifydementia.org), a website where I sell the toolkit components to people with all kinds of dementia, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Disease, Lewy Body Dementia, and any other neurodegenerative disorders affecting cognition.
I know I can't cure dementia with my efforts, but if I can make life any easier for those suffering like him and give support to other families like mine, I feel I'm honoring his wishes. To hear more about our journey, please follow my blog on dignifydementia.org.
Organization name
Dignify Dementia
2022
Tax id (EIN)
92-0516059
Category
Human Services, Diseases, Disorders & Medical Disciplines, Public & Societal Benefit, Education
Organization Size
Small Organization
Address
19752 E 54th Ave.CO, US
US