Donahue Vanderhider

My name is Donahue Vanderhider and I am a professional Gerontologist. I am
proud to say that I graduated from the University of Southern California with a Master's in Gerontology, and hold another University degree in Psychology. My interests have taken me to post-graduate training in Hypnotherapy, Neurolinguistic Programming and a bachelors in Metaphysics from the University of Metaphysics in Sendona Arizona.

I have been on advisory boards for the Alzheimer's Association and the YMCA, and still do extensive public speaking on the topics of Aging, Dementia, Caregiving and Stress Management. I consider myself on the frontlines of the "Graying of America". My experience and knowledge of age related issues are both extensive and cutting edge. The knowledge and experiences that I amassed over the years have allowed me the opportunity to assist and expand the current state of gerontology in my own little way, but more specifically I have championed the plight of caregiving for Alzheimer's disease. Being among the few top professionals on the forefront of the "Age Wave", I was a pioneer in exposing the extensive need and lack of support for the people caring for their loved ones.

It's old news now, but while almost every agency and organization dealing with Alzheimer's was focusing on the sufferers, I was one of the first professionals to focus on the caregivers, the family and friends of these dementia sufferers, and identified them as an underserved and unrecognized group of individuals with their own unique needs and problems.

When statistics from national non-profit agencies reported that over 50% of caregivers die before the person they are caring for, I recognized the cause as stress related and induced. I have devoted myself to finding realistic and inexpensive tools and techniques for caregivers to control and eliminate their stress levels without sacrificing their personal commitments to their loved one.

As the only Gerontologist with Hypnotherapy credentials on the West Coast, I was singled out to create stress management, guided imagery tools for caregivers by the Los Angeles County Area on Aging and the L.A. Caregiver Resource Center (a non-profit arm of the Andrus Gerontology Center of the University of Southern California). From that collaboration I distilled his stress management program in to a single CD that any caregiver could use and receive immediate as well as long-term stress relief.