Michael Verde - Communication Solutions

Our guest today is Michael Verde, from Texas, who from a very early age made the decision that he didn’t want to end up in a small universe and decided reading 100 pages a day would broaden his horizons. 

 Michael is now a writer, and founded Memory Bridge in 2003 after hearing someone on a documentary talk about people with dementia in a disparaging way and meeting someone from the Smithsonian Centre for Folk Life and Cultural Heritage. 

Memory Bridge exists to end the emotional isolation of people with dementia. They bridge people with and without dementia to each other in life-changing ways, with educational programs hosted on three continents.

 His passion is all about communicating with people, and he explains how people often feel disconnected from others, because they are not being emotionally cared for, creating emotionally isolation.

The training is designed to improve participants’ ability to attune to the emotions of a person with dementia and to establish a relationship of profound trust and mutual understanding, a foundation to all forms of person-centred care.

 Michael describes how a Memory Bridge educational programmes use learnings from people with dementia to enable us to be present with each other in emotionally profound ways. 

Memory Bridge participants are educated and encouraged to find a new way of being with people with dementia—a way that can turn awkward to flow, isolation to intimacy, and loneliness to companionship.

What is important is to give someone the kind of attention that enables people to feel that they belong and matter. He believes that communication is not a means to an end. It is the end.

‘Nobody is anybody without someone paying loving attention to him or her. ‘

 You can find Michael’s website here: https://www.memorybridge.org/

You can contact us at the following:
Dr Carol Sargent: https://sargentgroup.consulting/
Dr Tom Adler: https://getbide.com/