About Port of Call | The Dementia Awareness Podcast
Port of Call is the monthly podcast from The Dementia Lifeboat, created for caregivers, families, and professionals who are seeking clear, compassionate answers about dementia.
Hosted by Laura Wayman, the Dementia Whisperer, and Jocelyn Ives, a certified life coach for caregivers, each episode explores the real questions people ask when dementia symptoms begin to show up: changes in memory, behavior, communication, and daily functioning.
Together, Laura and Jocelyn blend education and emotional support, helping listeners better understand what dementia is (and what it isn’t), how it’s diagnosed, and how it affects both the person experiencing symptoms and those who care for them.
Want to speak on our podcast? Join us! laurawayman.com/podcast
When Should You Call Hospice in Dementia Caregiving?
Most families who bring in hospice say the same thing afterward: they wish they had called sooner. In this episode of Dementia Lifeboat: Port of Call, Laura Wayman, The Dementia Whisperer, and certified life coach for caregivers, Jocelyn Ives, talk with the team from Elevate Hospice and Palliative Care. Co-owner Donna Cohen, psychiatric nurse practitioner and co-owner Anneli Kumpula, and executive director Bethany Odenbrett explain when hospice makes sense for someone living with dementia sym...
18 Sept 2026
How Do You Stop Feeling Guilty as a Dementia Caregiver?
Caregiver guilt almost always starts with an expectation — that you should be doing this better, giving more, feeling less frustrated than you do. In this episode of Dementia Lifeboat: Port of Call, Laura Wayman, The Dementia Whisperer, and certified life coach Jocelyn Ives explain where that guilt actually comes from and what to do with it. Jocelyn's answer starts somewhere unexpected: you are not supposed to be perfect at this. Nobody loved you because you were perfect, and you don't love t...
14 Aug 2026
How Do You Sell Dementia-Aware Care? And How Do Families Recognize It?
What separates a beautiful building from truly dementia-aware care? And what should a family actually ask before moving a loved one into memory care? In this episode of Port of Call, Laura Wayman, the Dementia Whisperer, and Jocelyn Ives, certified life coach for dementia caregivers, sit down with Vanessa Romero, Sales Director at Carlton Senior Living in Orangevale, to talk about what "selling" dementia-aware care really means — and why it has almost nothing to do with amenities. Families ra...
17 Jul 2026
Dementia Aware Activities That Actually Work
Why does someone with dementia symptoms stop doing activities they used to love? It's one of the most common questions family caregivers and memory care professionals ask — and the answer isn't loss of interest. It's a loss of the brain's ability to process and participate. In this episode of Port of Call, Laura Wayman, the Dementia Whisperer, and Jocelyn Ives, certified life coach for dementia caregivers, sit down with Ju Tu, CEO and founder of Aegeliss, and Giulia Benvenuto, Community and P...
11 Jun 2026
How Do You Successfully Visit a Parent with Dementia Symptoms?
In this episode of the Port of Call podcast, Laura Wayman and Jocelyn Ives sit down with Ami Reichman, a senior living advisor and daughter caring for a father living with dementia symptoms. Ami spends her professional life helping families navigate dementia care, assisted living, memory care, and senior living decisions. But when dementia affected her own father, she found herself facing the same emotional challenges many caregivers experience: grief, guilt, repeated questions, frustration, ...
14 May 2026
How Do You Care for a Parent with Dementia?
In this episode of the Dementia Lifeboat Port of Call podcast, Laura Wayman and Jocelyn Ives sit down with caregiver Joe Dunham to talk about the emotional reality of caring for parents with dementia symptoms, medical complications, grief, and caregiver burnout. Joe shares the heartbreaking and overwhelming experience of navigating dementia care while trying to advocate for his father through hospitals, specialists, assisted living, and end-of-life care. Even with years of dementia awar...
17 Apr 2026
What Does Dementia Look Like in Real Life?
In this episode of the Dementia Lifeboat Port of Call podcast, Laura Wayman and co-host Jocelyn Ives sit down with caregiver Cindy to share a deeply personal and eye-opening story. Cindy opens up about her husband’s journey following a traumatic brain injury and the unexpected onset of dementia symptoms years later. What started as subtle personality changes quickly turned into confusion, fear, and moments that left her questioning everything she thought she knew about dementia. This conversa...
11 Mar 2026
Understanding the Real-Life Symptoms of Dementia
In this episode of Dementia Lifeboat: Port of Call, dementia educator Laura Wayman and certified life coach Jocelyn Ives sit down with Jennifer Gilbertson to talk about what dementia symptoms can look like in real life, long before many families recognize what is happening. Jennifer shares the early changes her family noticed in her mother: repeated stories, difficulty following familiar routines, challenges with communication, and a gradual loss of interest in activities she once loved. At f...
12 Feb 2026
What Does a Dementia Diagnosis Mean?
In this episode of Dementia Lifeboat: Port of Call, dementia educator Laura Wayman and certified life coach Jocelyn Ives walk through what happens after the words “dementia” or “Alzheimer’s” are spoken in a doctor’s office. A diagnosis often brings fear, overwhelm, denial, and a flood of “what if” questions about the future. In this conversation, Laura explains what is actually happening in the brain. Dementia is not just memory loss; it is why emotions remain even when reasoning fades,...
15 Jan 2026
What is Dementia?
In this opening episode of Dementia Lifeboat: Port of Call, dementia educator Laura Wayman and certified life coach Jocelyn Ives introduce a different way of understanding dementia, one rooted in real-life experiences. Not just clinical definitions. This conversation focuses on what often shows up first: the quiet loss of learned executive function. Tasks that once happened on autopilot, such as balancing a checkbook, driving confidently, planning, organizing, or coordinating movement, ...
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Apple Podcasts (US)
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Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
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