Author: Cate
Passionate about dementia care and quality of life throughout the last days of life----sums up Cate McCarty, Dr. Cate, Dementia Coach. With close to forty years of long-term care experience in nursing and recreation, a Master's in Thanatology and a PhD in Aging Studies, Dr. Cate seizes every opportunity to translate research into quality of life for individuals with dementia and all of us who have the honor to "rub elbows" with them.
Dementia Doula
My qualifications as a dementia recreation specialist come from over twenty-six years of care-ing for individuals with dementia. I started as a nurse’s aide in 1972, continued as a volunteer when my children were very young and then had the life-changing transition from professional caregiver to family caregiver of my father-in-law with Alzheimer’s disease. My ability to provide nursing assistance was very useful as a live-in caregiver, but our inability to provide him with better quality of life was devastating. After his death, I took on a job as activities assistant at the Adult Day Care Dad had attended briefly….