Common Questions I Am Asked

Maine Dementia Partners provides clinical guidance, care coordination, and family support for people navigating a loved one's dementia diagnosis. Marjorie Hunt, Nurse Practitioner works directly with families to help them understand the stage of disease, navigate care decisions, coordinate with medical providers and facilities, and plan for end of life, so no one has to figure this out alone.

Maine Dementia Partners is for families and caregivers of people living with dementia at any stage of the disease, from diagnosis to end-of-life planning. That includes adult children of someone newly diagnosed, spouses who have been carrying care on their own, siblings trying to agree on next steps, long-distance caregivers managing a loved one’s care in Maine from out of state, and families in crisis who need help right now.

Yes. If someone you love is memory impaired — whether that is early forgetfulness, a new diagnosis, or advanced memory loss in a facility — I help families across Maine understand what is actually happening and decide what to do next. I am a nurse practitioner, not a facility and not an agency, so the guidance is clinical and independent. Consultations are by Zoom or phone anywhere in Maine, with in-home visits in York, Cumberland, Androscoggin, and Kennebec counties. The first call is free.

A doctor can diagnose dementia and treat it medically, but a brief appointment rarely tells a family what to do when daily life starts changing. Maine Dementia Partners provides the dedicated time, dementia-specific expertise, and cross-setting care coordination that those appointments cannot. Marjorie Hunt, NP, has worked inside nursing homes, memory care facilities, assisted living, hospitals, and rehabilitation centers. She works alongside your loved one’s medical team and knows which questions to ask to get the answers your family needs.

A dementia care consultant is a clinician who helps families understand a dementia diagnosis, plan care as the disease progresses, and navigate decisions about safety, behaviors, facilities, and end-of-life care. At Maine Dementia Partners, that clinician is Marjorie Hunt, NP, a board-certified Adult-Gerontological Nurse Practitioner and geriatric care consultant with more than a decade of experience across every care setting in Maine. Dementia is her specialty. Because dementia changes more than memory, she also looks at the whole person: medications, other medical conditions, and what changed after a hospital or rehab stay.

The written assessment is a clinical document prepared by Marjorie Hunt, NP based on your initial consultation. It includes an assessment of your loved one's current stage of disease, individualized recommendations for care, guidance on next steps, and resources specific to your situation. It is designed to be shared with physicians, facilities, and other members of your loved one's care team.

The monthly memberships provide ongoing support after the initial engagement, with different levels of contact depending on how much help your family needs right now. Everyone’s situation is different and may call for more or less support at different times. After the initial engagement, we choose the tier together and revisit it at the end of each three-month term.

Marjorie Hunt, NP, works as part of your family’s team. Her job is to get the right information to the right people at the right time, so small changes get noticed early and decisions get made before you are forced into them. Ongoing support includes clinical guidance, care coordination, planning, and family support. One simple rule: if something changes, tell her. You do not need to know whether it matters, and you do not need the right words. Most communication goes through a secure portal, which she reviews during business hours, Monday through Friday, and generally answers within 48 hours. She is not a 24/7 on-call or emergency service, and there is a separate after-hours contact for the times you need real-time help. Support comes in four levels, from occasional guidance to full care management, and the level can change as your situation does.

Maine Dementia Partners is a private-pay practice and does not bill insurance.

Maine Dementia Partners serves families across Southern and Central Maine — York, Cumberland, Androscoggin, and Kennebec counties, including Portland, Scarborough, Biddeford, Saco, Brunswick, Lewiston, Auburn, and Augusta — with in-home visits available as clinically indicated. All services are also available via Zoom and phone, so families anywhere in Maine and long-distance caregivers nationwide can work with me. When able, it is always a goal to have in-person sessions, as these provide a greater depth of understanding of the experience those with dementia are having on a daily basis.

Memory care may be appropriate when a person’s needs exceed what can be safely managed at home, including significant behavioral symptoms, wandering, inability to be left alone, or caregiver exhaustion. Sometimes the first sign is simply that the current plan is getting harder to manage. Knowing when and how to make that transition, and how to choose the right facility, is one of the most common reasons families reach out to Maine Dementia Partners.

Read Marjorie's free Memory Care Tour Guide →

Consider hospice when someone with advanced dementia can no longer walk or speak more than a few words, is losing weight despite help with eating, has recurrent infections such as pneumonia or urinary tract infections, or sleeps most of the day. These changes often signal the final stage of the disease, when hospice eligibility is likely. Eligibility is often misunderstood; many families (and even providers) wait far longer than necessary because no one has explained the criteria clearly, and these decisions become harder when someone can't always speak for themselves. It takes years of doing this work to recognize the sometimes subtle ways people show me they are near their time to transition. Marjorie helps families recognize the signs, request a hospice evaluation, and bring the right information to their providers so the decision isn't delayed.

When someone living with dementia suddenly becomes more agitated, withdrawn, or combative, Marjorie never assumes it is just the dementia. She wants to know what changed. A person may be in pain they cannot explain, or a medication may be affecting them differently than it did before. These behaviors are almost always a form of communication from someone who no longer has the words. Marjorie has worked alongside geriatric psychiatrists on the behaviors families are told are unmanageable, including depression, anxiety, combativeness, wandering, and refusal of care. If your loved one is being sedated, restrained, or sent to the ER repeatedly for behavioral reasons, please reach out. There is almost always a better option, and medication is one tool, not the only answer.

Yes. If a facility says your loved one needs a higher level of care, you are allowed to ask why. Marjorie Hunt, NP, has worked inside memory care, nursing home, and assisted living settings and knows what good care looks like and what it doesn’t. She helps you understand what has changed, what has already been tried, whether the recommendation fits your loved one’s actual needs, what facilities are required to do, and when to escalate concerns. A change in care can affect where someone lives and how much the family pays. It deserves a careful conversation, and you have the right to advocate for your loved one.

Read Marjorie's free Memory Care Tour Guide →

No, I am not currently accepting job applications at this time.