ABOUT PAULA SPENCER SCOTT

 

I come to dementia education by both professional and personal paths.

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After writing 12 other books, all for major publishing houses and including collaborations with doctors at Harvard, Duke, and UCLA, I wrote Surviving Alzheimer's: Practical Tips and Soul-Saving Wisdom for Caregivers to capture the trove of life-changing insights and tips I'd collected from experts and families while covering eldercare as a journalist and family-life/health specialist.

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Working with some of the best neurologists, geriatricians, social workers, therapists, geriatric psychiatrists, and other experts around, my caregiver education and advocacy work has included writing curriculum for Weill-Cornell Medicine's Alzheimer's Universe and developing the Alzheimer's and caregiving channels at the original Caring.com.

 

I also share this information in live presentations, from small church groups to large conferences like the Aging in America. (Please see Speaking page to hear a sample from an Area Agency on Aging caregiver workshop.)

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My extensive background in health communications includes work with academic institutions, major corporations, and national media.

 

I'm a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America's journalists program and have been through the National Press Foundation's Alzheimer's Disease program. My work on health and family has appeared in Parade, Next Avenue, AARP Bulletin, Newsweek, Alzheimer's Reading Room, WebMD, Health, Woman's Day, Reader's Digest, and many other outlets.

 

Not least, the personal connection: My husband and I have six kids -- so we know from busy -- and more to the point here, five of our close family members have had dementia, including my live-in father-in-law and father.

 

(Those are their five beloved faces on the home page.)

 

I know what it's like to try to hold everything together as you watch someone you love morph into a not-so-funhouse-mirror version of himself. I've dealt with the repetitive questions, the pillboxes, the guilt, the grief, the worry, and oh yes the stress.

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