Dementia Care Partner Podcast with Teepa Snow
This podcast helps caregivers navigate the challenges of dementia care, offering creative solutions and insights into the senior care industry. Hosted by Teepa Snow, it provides practical advice and emotional support for those caring for individuals living with dementia. Listeners can submit questions and topics for discussion.
Episodes
377: How Gender and Life Roles Shape the Experience of Brain Change
Do men and women experience brain change differently? In this unscripted episode, Greg asks Teepa that question, and her answer goes beyond basic biology. You'll hear how hormones, brain wiring, and a lifetime of roles can shape what dementia looks like. For example, a longtime homemaker's familiar routines can hide early changes, while a former manager may feel driven to get back to work.
376: Why Do Care Staff Leave, and What Would Help Them Stay?
Senior care communities are struggling to hire and keep staff, and many are relying on overtime to fill the gaps. So why do people who care about older adults sometimes choose to walk away? In this episode, Teepa and Greg look at what the job often feels like from the inside: stretched shifts, extra residents added without notice, little preparation for supporting people living with brain change,
375: Why Some Dementia Prevention Headlines Can Do More Harm Than Good
A headline claiming up to 45% of dementia cases could be prevented or delayed by modifying lifestyle factors sounds hopeful, but Greg and Teepa dig into why it can also be misleading and even harmful. They explain how prevention framing can slide into shaming and blaming a person for brain change that was likely underway long before anyone noticed. Instead, Teepa offers a harm reduction approach t
374: What to Say Instead of Don't You Remember?
Some of the most common phrases in dementia care, like don't you remember and calm down, often seem to be some of the most unhelpful. Greg and Teepa unpack why these phrases often spark arguments and suggest replacing them with a simple, repeatable pattern: reflect back what the person said, offer information, then gently initiate a change of direction so the conversation doesn't loop. Learn more
373: How to Bring Up Hygiene Without Making Someone Feel Ashamed
A care partner asked about her mother who is still living on her own, but her personal and home hygiene have started to slip, and she wasn't sure how to bring it up without causing a reaction. Teepa models how to open the conversation gently by starting with the environment rather than the person, and she encourages using a detective's curiosity rather than confrontation to avoid triggerin
372: Why Trying to Trick Someone Living with Dementia Almost Always Backfires
When an article promises so-called tricks to get a person living with dementia to eat, bathe, or go to bed, Greg and Teepa stop to question both the word and the mindset behind it. They explain why these suggestions often assume that the individual can't tell what's happening (they often can) and how this tactic can erodes trust. They then walk through connection-based strategies that start with c
371: Dementia Headlines: Fact or Fiction?
Exercise grows new brain cells. This drink lowers your Alzheimer's risk by 32 percent. This food shrinks your brain. If you have ever tumbled down an internet rabbit hole of dementia headlines, this episode is for you. Greg reads Teepa a stack of real headlines pulled from just the first six months of the year, and together they sort out what deserves your attention and what is simply not true
370: Being a Lone Ranger is the Riskiest Role for a Care Partner
Some headlines stop you cold. Care partners have a 63% higher mortality rate than people the same age who aren't supporting someone. In this episode, Greg and Teepa look past this statistic and ask a better question: who exactly is dying early? Teepa's answer, drawn from forty-five years of experience, is that the risk isn't in supporting another individual — it's in doing it alone
369: I’m Not Thirsty: A Statement Worth Exploring
Heat waves can be dangerous for people living with dementia, and the reason is not what most care partners assume. In this episode, Teepa and Greg explain why the sense of thirst fades with age and brain change, why a wet mouth can convince the brain it has had enough, and why a person who is genuinely dehydrated may tell you with total confidence that they already drank. You will also hear why co
368: What Does Home Really Mean When Dementia is in the Picture?
A Dutch care community started placing life-size stickers of residents' own front doors on their room entrances. It's a lovely idea. So why doesn't it always land? In this episode, Teepa Snow and host Greg Phelps discuss why a person living with dementia may not be looking for their most recent home at all. They might be looking for their mother's house. Or the home they had when t
367: What's So Special About Music in Dementia Care?
If you have been following Teepa for any amount of time, you're familiar with how much she incorporates music and rhythm when supporting people living with dementia. This episode, Teepa and Greg discuss the reasons why music and rhythm is so effective at getting folks up and moving. You don't have to be a music therapist to incorporate these strategies!Want to go deeper?You don't need
366: Can Over-the-Counter Meds Cause Dementia?
According to one recent study, there are two specific over-the-counter medications that can cause a 44% increase in the risk for developing dementia. Does this mean I have to throw out everything I have in my medicine cabinet? Join us this week as Teepa discusses why medications and dementia are a tricky correlation, and why medical providers' familiarity with the Beers List can be very helpfu
365: Questions from Our Audience
This week, Teepa addresses two questions that were submitted by our listeners. The first question relates to getting curious if we notice a sudden change in a person living with dementia. The second question was related to alcohol consumption and if there is a connection to an increased risk of developing dementia. If you have asked yourself either of these questions recently, you'll be intere
364: You Gotta Have a Plan!
Reach, throw, go. If you see someone showing signs of distress while in the water, those three options could help potentially save a person's life. The same concept applies in dementia care, as Teepa and Greg discuss in this week's episode. If a person living with dementia is showing you signs of distress through their words or actions, having a plan in place could make a radical differenc
363: What Type of Hydration is Most Effective?
As those of us in the northern hemisphere head into summer, with record high temperatures forecasted for many, Teepa and Greg address a question that was submitted by our audience: is water sufficient at hydrating a person living with dementia or are electrolyte-focused drinks better? As with most things related to dementia care, the answer is not simple and straightforward. One of the considerati
Recommended
The Swerve Podcast: Obscure Topics | Conspiracy Theories
The Bread and Banter Podcast
The Church of What's Happening Now: The New Testament
Busted Open
Deadline: White House
Panda Show - Picante
Crickets Corner
History of the Earthquake and Fire in San Francisco
Fox news
K-Drama Obsessed Mamas | Beyond “Just One More Episode!”
True Crime Classics
The Healer Revolution
