Delivering Comfort and Purpose

Delivering Comfort and Purpose Rayna Neises 22:24

Rayna Neises, your host, interviews Tonja Moon. Tonja is a mother, business
owner, geriatric advocate, healthcare marketing strategist, and certified dementia
care specialist. With over 15 years of leadership experience in the hospice and
geriatric mental healthcare areas, her background is broad and dynamic. After
seeing how baby dolls and stuffed animals helped her grandmother, Ruby, who
had dementia, Tonja started The Grand Baby Project. The organization delivers
baby dolls to assisted living and memory care communities, free of charge,
bringing comfort to those who receive them. Tonya shares the following insights:

[2:54] When you put a doll in the arms of someone with dementia, their entire face lights up, and it takes them to a happy place, even if they never had children of their own.
[9:50] One of the hardest things to learn is to meet them where they are. It is
not about us, but instead about them.
[11:30] Giving them a purpose goes a long way.
[12:03] Staying in the moment can make such a big difference.
[13:13] The disease can be harder on the family than it is on the patient.
[17:15] Sometimes, we have to change our hobbies due to the limitations of
caregiving.
[21:02] Connect with Tonya at www.TheGrandBabyProject.org or on the
Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/grandbabyproject. Ways to be a
part of the mission:
- Purchase a baby doll for a loved one
- Donate items via the group’s Amazon Wishlist
- Purchase a baby doll to be given to someone
- Purchase diapers and other baby items to be distributed
- Sew or knit baby items and send them to be distributed

Rayna Neises A Season of Caring

Rayna Neises understands the joys and challenges that come from a season of caring. She helped care for both of her parents during their separate battles with Alzheimer’s over a thirty-year span. She is able to look back on those days now with no regrets – and she wishes the same for everyone caring for aging parents.

Rayna is the author of No Regrets: Hope for Your Caregiving Season, an ICF certified coach, the host of “A Season of Caring” podcast, Positive Approach® to Care (PAC)Independent Certified Trainer and speaker who is passionate about offering encouragement, support, and resources for regret-free caring aimed at preventing family caregivers from aimlessly wandering through this important season of life.

Rayna lives on a farm in southeast Kansas with her husband, Ron, and small pack of adorable dogs. She is the baby of her family, but most would never guess that. She is a former teacher who enjoys crafts of all kinds and spending time with her grandkids most of all.