Tell Us Your Story

Are you interested in sharing your story and help other caregivers in their journey?

By telling your story, you are helping raise awareness about the importance of caring for a person living with dementia (PLWD). You are also becoming an invaluable resource for people just beginning their caregiving journey or someone facing similar circumstances. Everyone’s experience is different. There are wonderful and difficult parts of caregiving for a loved one.

This is your story to tell!

We would love for you to share your unique caregiving experiences:

A joyful moment with your loved one
What advice would you give your younger self?
Tips for handling challenging behavior such as wandering, refusing to bathe, agitation etc.

You can record your caregiving story from any smartphone, tablet, or laptop with a camera. We have provided a set of storytelling topics to choose from to guide you through your storytelling. You can select any of these topics.

Step 1: Choose Your Topics from the Story Telling Topics

Here are topics to help guide you through what you want to talk about when sharing your story:

Tell us about a joyful moment in your caregiving journey or share a story that sparked joy.
If you can have 24 hours when your loved ones have their memory back, what would you do with them?
Has your loved one experienced any challenging behavior such as agitation, refusal to bathe, etc., and how did you overcome it?
When was the last time you cried?
What have you given up in order to provide caregiving to your loved one?
What have you gained throughout your journey as a caregiver?
What do you miss the most about your loved one?
Caregiving can sometimes be isolating and requires emotional and physical effort. How do you take care of yourself to ensure you stay well?
What message would you give to a person that is just starting their caregiving journey?
What would you tell your younger self?
What advice would you give yourself when you started to learn about what memory issues aging is or is like for your loved one?
I was surprised to learn/see that before experiencing memory issues, my loved one loved to [activity], but then I started to notice changes that affected their daily life.
Watching my loved one live life with memory issues was hard/painful to watch.
Explain: Overall, my experience with caregiving has been positive/difficult/emotional/rewarding, etc.
Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Step 2: Follow the Recording Instructions

Filming Instructions and Tips

Important:

Do not state your last name or the full name of the senior you were partnered with. You can say “the senior I was partnered with” or use their first name.
Please sit in front of a neutral background with no advertisements or marketing information to keep the focus on you and your words.
Make sure you are not backlit; this often happens if sitting with a window directly behind you.

What to Wear:

Put on your favorite top. Please avoid tops with text and wear pajama bottoms if you want; viewers will only be able to see your torso.
What is most important for this video is that you are comfortable.

Light is Key:

Your light source should come from in front of you or from the side, not behind. More lighting is almost always better.

Position of Camera:

Depending on which device you use to record (e.g., smartphone, laptop, tablet), you will need to position the device so that the webcam captures your face in a flattering way.
Simple backgrounds are best so as not to distract the viewer from the main focus: you.
People like to film at their kitchen tables, on their couches, or in their home offices. It is important to film in a place and in a position that makes you feel comfortable.

Sound:

When recording, make sure you are the only one in the room; this will help to optimize your audio.
Speak clearly, loudly, and enunciate.
Always look where your webcam is recording from. Look directly into the camera while filming.
When you want to start recording, hit the space bar.

Using the prompts, it is helpful for us if you use the full prompt sentences to begin each section so that we can review videos for HIPAA compliance and ethical concerns, as well as tag videos for viewers who may want to find stories like yours.

Record Your Video:

Submit Your Video on Google Drive:

Please submit your video to the folder on Google Drive that our team will email to you. Have fun! This is your unique story, so have fun telling it!

Step 3: Fill Out the Consent Form

Download this consent form and complete it, then email the completed form back to us at nakram@mednet.ucla.edu.

Step 4: Contact Us for Submission

Send an email to nakram@mednet.ucla.edu with the information below to get started with your submission:

Your Name
Topics you’d like to share in your story (please select as many as applicable: bathing, wandering, stress, agitation, self-care, advice, challenging behavior, other)
Briefly describe your story
Your Email