1. Living with Dignity: Dementia Advocate Mary Beth Wighton on Capturing Essence and Improving Healthcare Artwork

Capturing Essence for Care: Storytelling that Promotes Personhood in Healthcare

Capturing Essence for Care: Storytelling That Promotes Personhood in Healthcare Settings

Feeling rushed through patient interactions? Struggling to see the person behind the diagnosis?

Transform your senior care relationships in just minutes with evidence-based storytelling strategies that honour personhood in healthcare settings.

Listen for practical tools to:

Open deeper conversations with seniors, even with limited time.

Access life story approaches that reduce caregiver burnout.

Hear real conversations with people with lived experience including persons living with dementia.

Implement person-centred care that improves outcomes through meaningful connections.

Host Lisa brings together personal historians, digital storytellers, healthcare practitioners, and seniors themselves. Each episode delivers actionable insights for busy care teams seeking to capture essence through storytelling, writing, visual methods and more.

Perfect for: Healthcare providers, long term care staff, nursing home workers, home health aides, personal support workers, memory care teams, geriatric nurses, social workers, recreation, life enrichment and activity staff, family caregivers, and anyone passionate about promoting personhood through older adults' stories.

Join healthcare workers already transforming their practice. Start honouring the whole person behind every patient chart—follow today and discover how small conversations create profound care connections.

All Episodes

Capturing Essence for Care: Storytelling that Promotes Personhood in Healthcare

1. Living with Dignity: Dementia Advocate Mary Beth Wighton on Capturing Essence and Improving Healthcare

March 25, 2025 • Lisa Joworski • Episode 1

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Join our discussion with Mary Beth Wighton, inspiring international dementia advocate, writer and speaker as we talk about what it's like living with a diagnosis of probable Frontal Temporal Dementia and learn how she captures her essence.

Our conversation covers:

what receiving the diagnosis is like and the importance of bedside manner;
coming to terms with a diagnosis not just for herself but for family;
choosing to live with purpose and the role of being an advocate;
creating culture and policy change through community;
speaking up for our own needs and being a part of our own health care team;
the importance of positive energy and connection;
communicating our wishes with family and your most trusted supports;
why words matter (Caregiver vs. Care Partner)

**Note: This episode was recorded in the fall of 2022.

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Thank you for listening!

Do you have a question or a topic related to "capturing essence for care" that you would like discussed on the podcast? Send Lisa an email: awestruckaspirations@gmail.com

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