- With Mayo Clinic health education outreach coordinator
Angela Lunde
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Angela Lunde
Angela Lunde is a dementia education specialist in the education core of Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the Abigail Van Buren Alzheimer's Disease Research Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Angela Lunde
The transfer of information about dementias, as well as understanding the need for participation in clinical trials, is an essential component of the education core.
Angela is a member of the Alzheimer's Association board of directors and co-chair of the annual Minnesota Dementia Conference. She is a member of the Dementia Behavior Assessment and Response Team (D-BART), a multidisciplinary outreach service assisting professional and family caregivers in understanding and managing difficult behaviors often present in dementia. She facilitates several support groups, including Memory Club, an early-stage education and support series, and more recently, helped to develop and now deliver Healthy Action to Benefit Independence and Thinking (HABIT), a 10-day cognitive rehab and wellness program for people with mild cognitive impairment.
Angela takes a personal interest in understanding the complex changes that take place within relationships and among families when dementia is present. She is particularly interested in providing innovative and accessible ways for people with dementia and their families to receive information and participate in valuable programs that promote well-being.
"Amid a devastating disease, there are tools, therapies, programs and ways to cope, and it is vital that families are connected to these resources," she says.
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Alzheimer's blog
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May 15, 2012
Life's best lessons often emerge during caregiving role
By Angela Lunde
I'm writing on Mother's Day so it seems only natural that I'm thinking about my own mother. I feel tremendous gratitude that my mother, who lives only a few miles from me, doesn't have Alzheimer's or a related dementia. In fact, other than the normal age related issues that she brings up from time to time, she's both beautiful and healthy.
Many of you may not be so fortunate, as your mother may have Alzheimer's. The relationship between an adult child and their mother with Alzheimer's is unique in each family. But always, the experience of caregiving is relational. It can't be separated from people's understanding of each other in the past, present, or even the anticipated future. The personal journey of each son or daughter in a caregiving role is rooted in past relationships.
The mother-daughter bond (for better or worse) is central to the lives of women. For most of us, our mother knows us in ways no one else does, or even can. Only our mother fully knows the events surrounding our birth, only she may hold certain details of our childhood, our awkward quirks, most embarrassing moments and the pivotal milestones in our life. For some of us, it's our mother we look to, to share our joys, and who we turn to when we need to be comforted. So, when a daughter has a mother with Alzheimer's, the grief can be immeasurable.
Leeza Gibbons tells of the first time her mother with Alzheimer's no longer recognized her:
"I remember being home in my mother's house in South Carolina, helping her make the bed, and she was watching my every movement closely and trying to mirror what I was doing. Then she stopped and looked at me, and I said, "What's the matter, Mom?" She said, "You're a very nice lady. How do I know you?" And I just smiled and said, "You know me because today I'm your daughter, yesterday I was your daughter, and I'll always be your daughter." And she said, "Oh." "It stabs your heart," Leeza said.
In my discussions with daughters who are caring for a mother (or father) with Alzheimer's, there are always those that inspire me with their grace. These women speak about the incredible sadness of not only losing a part of their mother, but feel like they're losing a part of themselves as well. Yet, in spite of this, I hear often from women about the unexpected gifts and the life lessons that prevail even in the darkest stretches of caregiving.
Many share how their mothers with Alzheimer's teach them about living in the moment — existing outside of memory and occupying the moment wholly. These daughters have learned how to find a sense of contentment and love in the face of a bad situation — mostly by simply choosing to. They reveal that their mother's Alzheimer's teaches them that unleashing the joy in caregiving, and moreover in life, has to do with adjusting priorities, learning to value little steps, letting go of old ideas and expectations, seeing the delight in ordinary things and accepting life as it unfolds.
Life lessons from Mom needn't end when Alzheimer's begins. In fact, the greatest may be yet to come.
"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!"
- Maya Angelou
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