This series will follow the journey of the family caregiver during their loved one’s dementia care.
Family caregivers of People With Dementia are confronted with numerous decisions regarding the care and eventual placement of their loved one. In each session of this series, a critical area of care or future needs for care will be discussed. Preparing the family caregiver for the disease process, the corresponding behaviors of each stage of dementia, and the stress, guilt and grief felt by caregivers are central to this series. When applicable, sister sessions for stress relief, elder law, etc., will be offered.
Date February 22, 2021
Hosted By WellMed Charitable Foundation
Tam Cummings, PhD
Tam Cummings, PhD founded her company in 2009 with the mission to “Inspire, Educate,
and Empower Dementia Caregivers.” Now her professional gerontology practice in the Texas
Hill Country is recognized as one of the leading educators of dementia caregivers and
program design for dementia care in Texas and nationally.
To date Dr. Cummings has
• authored and published four books for dementia caregivers.
• speaks in national podcasts for dementia caregivers.
• trained more than 35,000 medical professionals, professional and family caregivers and
community first responders nationally.
• provides consultations, assessments, dementia education, and care plans for family
caregivers in their homes for the CAPCOG Area Agency on Aging.
• acknowledged as having the highest ranked keynotes and breakout sessions at more
than 300 professional and family caregiver conferences.
• developed the Dementia Behavioral Assessment Tool (DBAT) for staging dementias
which resulted from 25 years of research in SNFs and memory care communities.
• developed a classification and staging tool for the behavioral, communication, and
movement variations of the FTDs (Frontotemporal Dementias) – the only tool of its kind.
• recognized as the subject-matter-expert (SME) and program designer in a 2018 CMP
Project awarded to the Texas Health and Human Services. Cummings developed training
for frontline staff to include clinical features of each major form of dementia, specific
behaviors presented by different dementias, and correct approaches to ADL care for
individual residents.
• selected as the SME to design and develop the training content for a 2016 CMP with the
Texas Health Care Association. This pilot program reduced the use of antipsychotic
medications in SNFs by training professional and family caregivers to recognize the most
common forms of dementia and the behaviors associated with each disease. Additional
components included designing and teaching activity directors to implement appropriate
activities for PWD, teaching family caregivers about dementias and offering Medical
Education Credits for physicians.