I would love to hear from you. Send me questions or comments. A dementia diagnosis can feel like getting dropped into the middle of a maze with a pamphlet and a long wait until the next appointment. We wanted to close that gap, so we sat down with Grace Walfall, founder of Living with Change, Dementia Consultants, and author of *Preparing with Clarity: Next Steps After Dementia Diagnosis*. Grace is a certified dementia practitioner, dementia champion, and educator trained in a Positive Approach to Care, and she brings a calm, practical framework that helps families stop spiraling and start moving forward. We dig into why even “good” medical advice can still leave you feeling lost. Medical information can explain what may be happening in the brain, but it often doesn’t answer the real-life questions: What does tomorrow morning look like? Who needs to know? What should we gather first? Grace explains why naming the type of dementia matters (Alzheimer’s, vascular, Lewy body, frontotemporal, and mixed dementia) and how that clarity supports better planning, better conversations, and better expectations. Then we get concrete. Grace walks us through the first steps after diagnosis, including creating a simple “home base” for critical documents like medication lists, insurance details, emergency contacts, advance directives, and HIPAA authorization so the right people can access medical information when it counts. We also talk about dignity-centered planning, how to include the person living with dementia while their preferences can still be heard, and why “don’t correct, connect” can change everything in hard moments. If you want a steadier path through dementia caregiving, hit play, share this with someone who needs it, and please subscribe, leave a review, and tell us what planning question you’re wrestling with right now. Support the show
