If you are caring for someone with dementia, you might feel like someone changed the rules of reality. Authors Barbara Huelat and Sharon Pochron support both caregiver and the person with dementia alike with non-pharmaceutical therapeutic interventions that target the miseries of dementia behaviors, triggers, and casualties induced by them.

Options include human engagement, the experience of destinations, positive distractions, familiar settings, furnishings, light, color, technology, nature, and the emotion of the senses. No cure exists for dementia, but the tips, strategies, and suggestions included here provide tools for caregivers and those with dementia to make the experience more comfortable and calm.

Barbara J. Huelat, FASID, AAHID, EDAC, is nationally recognized for work in patient-centered design. Her three decades as a design practitioner cover virtually all types, components, and sizes of domestic and international healthcare, government, and VA facilities. Currently, she is Design Principal of the interiors firm Healing Design in Alexandria, VA. She is a past president of the American Academy of Healthcare Interior Designers. Barbara has been honored with numerous design awards for projects of excellence, as well as personal recognition for ASID, Designer of Distinction, Humanities Design Award, Luminary Award and Fellow. Huelat has authored two books: Healing Environments: Design for the Body Mind & Spirit and Healing Environments, What's the Proof? Barbara lectures frequently on a spectrum of healthcare design topics. She resides in Alexandria, VA.

Sharon Pochron, a professor at Stony Brook University, runs an environmental science laboratory that studies the effects of human impact on ecosystems. Her most recent work covers topics that include the impact of agrochemicals on soil health and nature-based methods to offset climate change. She has also published animal-centered articles for kids in Highlights for Children.