Facing Dementia Together:
A Workshop Series Exploring Dementia & Our Life Together as Friends
Dementia is a common yet complex condition. Even though dementia is present in our communities, it isn't always easy for us to talk about openly. This workshop series offers a loving, honest space for interested Friends. We invite caregivers, Friends experiencing cognitive decline, and those serving their Quaker meeting including in roles such as clerk, members of pastoral care, ministry & council, or nominating committees to join us. Together, we will explore how our communities can better understand dementia and support the participation of Friends living with dementia and their loved ones.
This series invites us to face dementia as a chance to deepen how we love and care for one another as a community of faith. We will draw on the wisdom already present among us, sharing what our Meetings have learned, while also identifying where further exploration and resources may be needed.
Our hope is that participants will leave with practical insight, decreased isolation, a sense of blessing in this faithful journey, and renewed confidence in speaking honestly and tenderly about dementia within our relationships and Meetings.
The Spirit continues to work through us and through our Meeting communities, even amid the changes and challenges dementia brings.
Brought to you by Baltimore Yearly Meeting and New England Yearly Meeting, this workshop is offered free of charge, with thanks to the Friends Foundation for the Aging.
Although the workshops are meant to build upon each other, you are welcome to participate even if you cannot make it to each session.
Facilitators
Patti Muldoon, of Monadnock (New Hampshire) Meeting and previously Friends Meeting at Cambridge (Massachusetts), serves as New England Yearly Meeting’s Aging Resources Consultation and Help (ARCH) Coordinator. Drawing on years of experience accompanying others through loss, including as a death doula, Patti works with Friends and Friends meetings exploring aging and end of life issues.
Patti Nesbitt, of Sandy Spring (Maryland) Meeting, clerked Baltimore Yearly Meeting’s End of Life Working Group, co-authoring the book A Tender Time: Quaker Voices on the End of Life. Patti is a retired palliative care nurse, a caregiver, a traveling minister, and a graduate of the School of the Spirit.
Questions? Email NEYM Program Director Nia Thomas at [email protected].
