🌱 What Makes 365 Ways to Say I Care Different

Most resources about dementia focus on decline — and too often, they begin at the end.

365 Ways to Say I Care was created to do something different.

This living directory is built on a simple but radical truth:
Life is not over at the time of diagnosis.

People living with dementia remain individuals with strengths, preferences, creativity, agency, and the capacity for joy — often for many years. Care, therefore, must be responsive not only to loss, but to everything that remains, adapts, and continues to matter.

A collage picturing some of the voices surrounding Miss Ethel who sang with us following her diagnosis of Alzheimer's.

“A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.” (Author unknown)                                               

🌿 How this series is organized

Each entry in 365 Ways to Say I Care is presented in a clear, directory-style format, so caregivers — often busy and sometimes overwhelmed as I was — can quickly understand the idea at a glance.

Each “Way” is written with early-stage and middle-stage dementia in mind first, emphasizing:

  • Abilities rather than deficits
  • Participation rather than passivity
  • Relationship rather than rescue

Below each entry, readers may also find an optional free-form section that explores:

  • How the same “Way” can be modified as dementia progresses
  • Reflections from lived caregiving experience
  • Personal observations, photos, or stories where appropriate

This structure allows care to evolve without erasing personhood.

 

Mother reading orally with Uncle Max, her only brother and youngest sibling.

Two former teachers reading together – our dear Uncle Max with his oldest sibling – Miss Ethel.

🌿 Why stages matter – but don’t define the person

For clarity, this series uses the Alzheimer’s Association’s simplified three-stage framework: Early-stage (mild), Middle-stage (moderate), Late-stage (severe).

The purpose of staging here is not to label, but to prevent a common and harmful shortcut: jumping directly from diagnosis to late-stage imagery.

When we do that, we unintentionally reinforce fear, stigma, and social withdrawal — precisely when connection, support, and possibility matter most.

 

🌻 The heart of this project

At its core, 365 Ways to Say I Care exists to:

  • Honor caregivers without reducing care to crisis-only moments
  • Affirm that there is life beyond diagnosis
  • Encourage support systems that make it possible to live more fully
  • Reimagine dementia tragedy narratives as vibrant, authentic, and joy-filled narratives

Care is not only what we offer at the end of life.
Care is how we walk with one another — day by day, season by season.

This project is an invitation to do exactly that.

 

Author:

Susan Troyer
Website Author & Curator and Member: