2019 Multi-Faith and Community Leaders' Workshop

Ministering to Families Facing Alzheimer's and Related Dementias


Sheila Welch

What is Dementia?

What is dementia? Sheila Welch, Support Group Facilitator and Coordinator of the Dementia Ministry at Due West UMC, helps answer this question.

Dr. Robert Bowles

What does dementia mean to the person living with it?

A person living with dementia can answer that best. Robert Bowles, dementia educator, advocate and writer lives with Lewy Body Dementia and spends his life dispelling the stigma associated with dementia. Robert opens minds and hearts.

Meet Rick & Martha Perry

What does dementia mean to the family loving someone through this illness?

We call on experts to give us that perspective. Rick Perry and his family are loving his wife, Martha through Early Onset Alzheimer’s. Their story inspires us all to do more, to love better.

Sheila Welch

In what other ways might dementia affect a family?

Sheila Welch and her husband, Kim, have led a Dementia Ministry for nine years. Alzheimer’s has claimed her mother, four aunts and uncles, and a beloved cousin. Her family’s experiences and those shared by hundreds of care partners provide answers.

Sheila Welch

So, How Do We Walk With These Families?

Sheila and her husband, Kim, lead the Dementia Ministry at Due West UMC in Marietta, Georgia. Eight of their family members have lived with dementia. The experiences of their own family led them to develop this ministry. The experiences of other families facing dementia, inspire their work today.

Cindy Snyder

"It is not important how large the beginning...it is the beginning that is important!"

Cindy Snyder became a dementia educator when she answered the call to act.

Reverend Hal Cole

How do we minister to the spirit of those who live with dementia?

Reverend Hal Cole is a former Hospice Chaplain, currently serving as Support Group Facilitator, Grief Specialist, and Director of Spiritual Care at a long term care community. Hal spends his life ministering to those who live with dementia and to their families. He will help us see and hear and love more deeply.

Reverend Linn Possell

How do we better love people living with dementia?

Reverend Linn Possell loved her mother through Frontotemporal Dementia. For 15 years she has passionately and compassionately shared her extensive dementia knowledge and experience to help those who live with dementia and their families. She is a trainer, coach, consultant and speaker for Positive Approach to Care.

Robin Dill

Why Congregational Respite Care?

Robin Dill enlightens us all! Robin served for twelve years as Director of Grace Arbor, a congregational respite program at First United Methodist Church in Lawrenceville, Georgia. Today, Robin mentors other churches as they begin Respite Ministries of their own.