6 Week Dementia and Loss Educational Support Group
Facilitated by Dr. Darrell Owens, DNP
Next Group Starting in the Fall
(dates TBD)
The goal of this comprehensive six-week facilitated educational support group is to provide a deeper understanding of the diagnosis and prognosis of dementia and its associated losses, and support those who are going through it.
More than just an intellectual understanding, we aim to create a safe and supportive environment where participants can openly discuss how these losses impact them emotionally. Rest assured, all discussions within the group are strictly confidential, ensuring a secure and comfortable space for everyone.
How it Works
Each week, a specific topic will be covered in our 75-minute sessions.
The topics were developed based on the concerns of loved ones over many years of clinical experience. These sessions are designed to provide approximately 30 minutes of education on the week’s topic, followed by a facilitated supportive discussion for the remainder of the time.
Our experienced facilitator is here to guide and support you through these discussions, ensuring a safe and respectful environment for all.
The overall goal of this program is to allow you to feel heard first and foremost, and equip you with a better understanding of the grief and loss you’re experiencing with a loved one going through dementia. If you feel better, that is an added benefit.
Topics covered during our 6 weeks together include:
Week One:
Welcome, introductions, group norms. What is this disease called dementia, and how long does it last?
Support Discussion: What does it mean, and how does it feel to have a loved one living with dementia?
Week Two:
My person is not the same. Why don’t people understand? Grief and ambiguous loss.
Support Discussion: Am I grieving? How would I know?
Week Three:
What am I hoping for? Understanding what matters most and my hopes for my person – establishing goals for healthcare interventions.
Support Discussion: Thinking about this is so hard. What is their quality of life now? What is mine?
Week Four:
What’s next? The uncertainty of disease progression.
Support Discussion: Multiple losses and pain. Sometimes, I think death would be better than how they are living.
Week Five:
The challenges with our current healthcare system and caring for you and your person.
Support Discussion: What does it feel like to say no or yes to specific treatment interventions? Do healthcare providers acknowledge your losses and your grief? Do you?
Week Six:
Who am I now? Loving someone living with dementia.
Support Discussion: Multiple losses, acknowledgment, coping versus adapting.
Register Today to Secure Your Place
in Our Next Group for Just $360
Group Facilitator:
Dr. Darrell Owens, DNP
3Dr. Darrell Owens, DNP, is an international expert in palliative care and a certified thanatologist and grief therapist who practiced at the University of Washington for 22 years. Prior to his retirement from the University of Washington, Dr. Owens was the Section Head and Medical Director for the Palliative Care Service at the University of Washington Medical Center, Northwest Campus, and prior to that at UW’s Harborview Medical Center. In 2025, he retired from the University of Washington School of Medicine and is now a Clinical Professor Emeritus.
Dr. Owens has practiced geriatrics, hospice, and palliative care for 33 years. He is an advanced registered nurse practitioner with board certifications in Adult Health – Primary Care, Geriatrics/Gerontology – Primary Care, and Hospice/Palliative Care. He is a certified thanatologist through the Association of Death Education and Counseling. He is the only nurse practitioner in the U.S. to have earned an M.S. in Thanatology and to be certified as a thanatologist (emphasis on grief and loss therapy).
In addition to his MS in Thanatology from Edgewood College in Madison, he holds a BSN from Emory University, an MS in Health Services Administration from St. Mary’s College, and an MS in Nursing (Palliative Care CNS and two postgraduate programs: Adult Health Primary Care and Geriatrics/Gerontological Primary Care) from Seattle Pacific University. He earned his Doctor of Nursing Practice in Geriatrics and Palliative Care at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (emphasis geriatrics and palliative care) and is a 2002 Harvard Medical School Faculty Scholar in Palliative Care graduate.
He is a leading researcher of disenfranchised grief in nurses in the U.S. His international work includes serving as an active consultant to the Republic of Vietnam to help launch palliative and home-based end-of-life care in Hue and Hanoi. In collaboration with the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Hue, he researches death anxiety in Vietnamese oncologists.
Over his 22 years with UW Medicine, he founded the Inpatient and Outpatient Palliative Care Services at Harborview Medical Center and Northwest Hospital in Seattle, WA. In 2011, Dr. Owens was selected as the American Academy of Nurse Practitioner’s Nurse Practitioner of the Year for the State of Washington, and in 2019, he was honored with the University of Washington Distinguished Staff Award for outstanding dedication to the University of Washington Community. In 2020, he was inducted into the Washington State Nurses Association Hall of Fame.
Dr. Owens has extensive clinical experience caring for people with dementia as a primary and palliative care provider. He has worked with hundreds of families as they have navigated the multiple losses associated with this disease. On a personal level, Dr. Owens’s father and three out of four grandparents died from complications related to dementia. His mother is currently living with dementia and resides in a long-term care facility outside of Washington.
