One Family's story on how a diagnosis impacted their lives

One Family's story on how a diagnosis impacted their lives

Our Young Onset series begins with a conversation between Matt Dineen, a father of three and husband from Ottawa, Ontario and Jillian McConnell, guest host and Knowledge Mobilization lead with brainXchange.  Nine years ago, Matt's wife Lisa was diagnosed with Behavioural variant Fronto-temporal dementia (bvFTD) at the age of 43.  

Matt and Jillian discuss what his experience has been like including: how Lisa was diagnosed, the challenges surrounding a diagnosis and symptoms at such an early age,  how it impacted him, Lisa and their children (who were ages 12, 10 and 8 at the time) and what strategies and resources Matt found most helpful early on in Lisa's diagnosis and now, years later.
For more information:

• Association for Fronto-temporal degeneration:  https://www.theaftd.org/
• AFTD support groups in Canada: https://www.theaftd.org/get-involved/in-your- state/canada/
• The Dementia Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County: https://dementiahelp.ca/
• ASO: https://alzheimer.ca/on/en
• ASC: https://alzheimer.ca/en
• brainXchange: https://brainxchange.ca/public/home

Resources for this episode can be found under the following sections on our resource page