School is back in session, and while we could devote this week’s newsletter to Dad’s 1987 rec-league basketball trophy that conveniently doubles as a chalice, that feels like a fast track to a parent-teacher conference.

Instead, we’re going for teacher’s pet. Gray Monster and The Sandwich Club made something we’re pretty proud of: a free Dementia Planner built specifically for caregivers of people living with dementia. Keep reading and we’ll show you around.

💊 The FDA approved daraxonrasib, a first-of-its-kind pill for advanced pancreatic cancer, offering new hope for patients and a reminder that breakthrough treatments often come with steep price tags.

🎵A Cleveland memory café program is giving people with dementia and their caregivers a free place to connect in a less clinical manner. 

🎤 Global legend Dolly Parton’s final health updates included a painfully familiar caregiver warning: while watching over her husband Carl, she said she ignored health issues she should have paid attention to. 

🧠 New research finds that language skills may hold steady, or even improve, with age, unless stroke or dementia is involved.

A dementia diagnosis comes with a lot of questions and very few instructions. What paperwork needs to happen now? Is Dad still safe at home? When should you start looking at care options? What can wait six months, and what absolutely cannot?

Gray Monster teamed up with The Sandwich Club to build something that helps answer those questions: the Dementia Planner, a new free tool that creates a personalized plan based on what’s actually happening in your family.

It’s now live in beta, which means you can use it today, and we’ll continue improving it based on what families tell us they need.

So what does it actually do?

You answer questions about the person you’re caring for, where they are in their dementia experience, and what’s already been handled. From there, the planner creates a personalized Task Planner to help you understand what needs attention now, what’s coming next, and what can probably stay off your list for the moment.

It also includes chapters that won’t put you to sleep that cover the things families eventually have to figure out, including:

Its goal is to give you direction that’s more useful than the opinion of the sibling who lives across the country and only comes home at Christmas.

Why build another dementia resource?

There is no shortage of information about dementia. The harder part is figuring out which information matters to your family, right now. As The Sandwich Club described the planner:

“Instead of generic advice, it builds a Task Planner around your actual situation and updates it as things change, so you always know what to focus on next.”

Someone whose parent was diagnosed last Tuesday needs something very different from someone who has been managing dementia for five years. The planner is designed to meet you where you are and change as your situation does.

A word about the beta.

This is an early version of the Dementia Planner. It works. It’s free. And we also know it can get better. That’s why we’re releasing it to caregivers now instead of trying to build the supposedly perfect dementia planner in a conference room somewhere.

As people use it, Gray Monster and The Sandwich Club will be looking closely at what’s helpful, what’s confusing, and what’s missing. Some users may also be invited to participate in an optional survey or short interview about their experience.

What does it cost?

Nothing.

The Dementia Planner is free to use. You’ll just need to create a free Sandwich Club account if you don’t already have one.

So what should you do?

If dementia is part of your family’s life, give it a try. You don’t have to finish everything it recommends. You don’t even have to finish the planner in one sitting.

Start where you are, see what rises to the top, and use it to make the next decision a little easier. Then kick the digital tires and tell us what you think. What’s useful? What’s missing? What would make it better? Honest feedback is what the beta is for.

And if dementia isn’t part of your day-to-day, we still want to hear from you. What should we build next? What would actually make caring for your parent easier?

We know that just because something can be built doesn’t mean it should be. But we’re pretty determined to keep creating things that make caregiving more manageable, and the best ideas are going to come from the people actually doing it.

Explore the free Dementia Planner →

You can’t fail this one. Answers and another quiz drop next week.

You said it. This week’s submissions.

"My mother is grappling with a lot of emotions right now and it's hard to take that on."

"I love Mom's garden and there isn't anything I wouldn’t do for her, but it is becoming a lot on top of my work and what I need to do for myself."

"I spent 45 minutes explaining to Dad that the text from the IRS was not actually from the IRS."

"Mom gave a stranger on Facebook her phone number because he ‘seemed nice.’"

"I finally got Mom to agree to let someone come help twice a week. She canceled before they even started."

"Dad told me he doesn’t want me worrying about him, which would be easier if he stopped giving me things to worry about."