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Paula Spencer Scott, Senior Health Writer

Paula Spencer Scott is the author of Surviving Alzheimer's: Practical Tips and Soul-Saving Wisdom for Caregivers and much of the Alzheimer's and caregiving content on Caring.com.

Scott has specialized in women's life-stage concerns (baby care, family care, self-care, elder care) from her first job as an editor at 50 Plus Magazine through stints as a Woman's Day columnist and coauthor of health books with doctors at Harvard, UCLA, Duke, and Arizona State. She's a 2011 Met Life Foundation Journalists in Aging fellow, awarded by the Gerontological Society of America and New American Media, and completed a National Press Foundation's Alzheimer's Disease 2012 fellowship.

In the late 2000s, she lost both her parents, in their 80s, to cancer; her father also had dementia and stroke. "In short order during that phase," she says, "I experienced just about everything that's on this site, from dealing with their illnesses to selling the family home and moving Dad, plus advance directives, end-of-life planning, hospice, death -- and stress."

Follow her on Twitter @PSpencerScott.

Recently Published on Caring.com

Alzheimer's Care Team — Oct 02, 2009
Which professionals handle dementia? Learning that your parent has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's is unsettling at best, but fortunately many experienced professiona...
10 Questions to Ask Your Parent's Doctor About Alzheimer's — Oct 02, 2009
In order to discuss your parent's medical issues with her doctor, you must have access to her medical records. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPA...
8 Red Flags That an Alzheimer's Caregiver Needs a Break — Oct 02, 2009
Stress and burnout are the most common problems for those who care for someone with Alzheimer's disease. And, in turn, caregiver stress -- the emotional strain of tending t...
Dealing With Denial — Sep 03, 2009
Does the relative you look after accept the reality of his or her situation? What about the other family members in the orbit of concern? Do they realistically ge...
Difficult Conversations: How to Talk to Someone About Incontinence — Aug 12, 2009
Incontinence in a relative or someone else close to you is impossible to ignore: the odor, the mess, the cleanup. Ironically, the subject is often ignored anyway -- at leas...
Anticipatory Grief: How to Cope With the "Living Death" of Alzheimer's — Aug 07, 2009
What is anticipatory grief? Anticipatory grief is the emotional pain of losing a loved one, felt in advance of the person's death. It's a common phenom...
Alzheimer's Diagnosis — Jul 27, 2009
If a parent or other family member has started to show signs of dementia or possible Alzheimer's disease, you may feel overwhelmed and unable to figure out what t...
Non-Alzheimer's Causes of Dementia — Jul 24, 2009
Quick summary Alzheimer's isn't the only explanation for dementia. Other causes include vascular dementia caused by strokes, Lewy body disease, Parkinson's...
Nontraditional Therapies to Help Someone With Alzheimer's — May 14, 2009
Quick summary Conventional treatment for Alzheimer's disease focuses on medication, emotional support, and forms of behavior modification to help a person ...
How to Communicate Better With Someone Who Has Alzheimer's — May 06, 2009
It's so easy to become frustrated when talking to someone with dementia or Alzheimer's. It's hard to know the "right" way to respond to the repetitive or odd thin...