Caregiver and Physician Conversations - Featuring Margery Pabst and Doctor Debra Hunt

Caregiver and Physician Conversations - Featuring Margery Pabst and Doctor Debra Hunt eCareDiary.com is thrilled to continue our monthly series with Margery Pabst, a leading voice in the field of eldercare. Each month Margery hosts a new segment for “Caregiver and Physician Conversations,” providing a forum for caregivers and physicians to discuss the challenging situations that confront patients and their families, providing a model for family and professional caregivers to discuss critical issues, family stress points and options for providing the best care to patients, especially when a family member is in a care facility such as a hospital or nursing home.

This month's guest will be Dr. Debra Hunt. Dr. Hunt has 20 years experience in nursing, 13 of those years as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner. She is Board Certified in Family Practice and Gerontology and is a faculty member in the College of Nursing at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Hunt’s research interests include the experiences of living with dementia, cognitive rehabilitation for middle-aged people with dementia, and quality of care issues in long term care. Most recently, she completed a qualitative study of the “Lived experience of young-onset dementia”. Based on the findings of this study she is currently exploring opportunities to reach out to people, with early stage dementia through poetry and literature, as a way to stall cognitive decline. .

Ms. Pabst is an author, facilitator and national speaker. She is the co-author of “Enrich Your Caregiving Journey,” a book selected by Today’s Caregiver Magazine for the 2010 Caregiver Friendly Award. Her work has expanded to collaborating with physicians on identifying patient/caregiver emotional needs and values, a critical part of the healing process. In her work she explores the potential for development and empowerment as we age and care for others.