The Dementia Collective #34 is Live!

This episode can be found HERE

What happens when a family is left to navigate dementia without clear guidance or support?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Lori La Bey, founder of Alzheimer’s Speaks, to explore what a decades-long caregiving journey reveals about the realities of dementia care.

Lori supported her mother through a 30-year experience with dementia. What began as confusion and uncertainty became a lifelong commitment to understanding care, building community, and creating space for voices that were often missing from the conversation.

She shares what those early years looked like, what families are often not prepared for, and why so much of caregiving happens outside of formal systems. Lori reflects on the gap between diagnosis and real support, the role of community in navigating that gap, and how her work has helped reshape how caregivers connect, learn, and support one another.

This conversation moves beyond theory. It focuses on what caregiving actually looks like over time, and what it takes to support someone while adapting to constant change.

In this episode:
• What a 30-year dementia journey reveals about caregiving
• The gap between diagnosis and meaningful support
• Why families often feel like they are figuring it out on their own
• How community-based models like memory cafés are changing care
• The role of lived experience in shaping better support systems
• How dementia conversations have evolved over time
• Why connection matters as much as clinical care

Whether you are caring for a loved one, supporting someone through a diagnosis, or working in the dementia space, this episode offers a grounded look at what long-term caregiving really requires.

Care doesn’t begin with a system. It begins with people finding their way forward, often before anyone shows them how.

Join 'The Village' on Patreon

If you believe in what we are building, I’m inviting you to stand with us. For only $5 per month (less than a Starbucks coffee), you can help us grow this movement, reach more families, and continue breaking the stigma around dementia care.

Your support truly makes a difference.

Village Members receive:

• Early access to new episodes

• The ability to submit questions for upcoming guests

• Occasional behind the scenes updates or voice memos from the host

• Optional name listing on our website’s “Thank You Wall”

This work cannot be done alone. Every conversation, every story, and every episode helps shift how the world understands dementia. Your five dollars directly strengthens that impact.

Join The Village HERE and help us bring more voices, more stories, and more hope to caregivers everywhere.

Don’t Forget to Sign Up for blueBell Connect

We are excited to announce that our patent-pending tool, blueBell Connect is now available for caregivers to sign up. 

blueBell Connect provides caregivers clinically valid, personally specific and culturally appropriate support recommendations in your daily care for individuals living with dementia. 

Click HERE for a blueBell Connect brochure

For more information, check out bluebellconnect.ca or email [email protected]

Click HERE to sign up