Dem 308 Understand the Role of Communication and Interactions with Individuals Who Have Dementia

As a person's dementia develops, it is likely to have an impact on some of their abilities but there will still be lots that the person can enjoy doing, both individually and with others. Maintaining existing skills, as far as possible, can give the person pleasure and boost their confidence. For this reason, it is important to help them find activities that they enjoy doing, and to continually adapt them to meet the person's changing interests and needs, throughout the illness.

A4) Describe the impact the behaviours of carers and others may have on an individual with dementia.

Demonstrate how an individual with dementia has been valued, included and able to engage in daily life.

Dementia as a clinical syndrome is characterised by global cognitive impairment, which represents a decline from previous level of functioning and is associated with impairment in functional abilities and in many cases behavioural and psychiatric disturbances.

1.3 Individual’s process information in different ways therefore depending on their abilities will depend on their limitations of individuals with dementia. Some people are aware of their limitations, this may make them feel sad for the way they are now and making them worried about the future. Usually as the disease progresses, the level of self-awareness will most likely decline as well. In earlier stages of dementia the person you care fore may deny or not understand that they have the disease and this can then result in them not realising their own limitations in their abilities, such as driving, cooking etc.

2. Explain how positive interactions with individuals who have dementia can contribute to their wellbeing.

• Every individual, including individuals with dementia, has their unique life history, lifestyle, culture and preferences, including their likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests, which makes an individualised approach in care necessary.

Unit-4, Q3. Explain how negative beliefs, values and misunderstandings can affect a person's attitude towards people with dementia. Unit-4, Q4. Explain how positive beliefs and values can affect a person's attitude towards a people with dementia. Unit-4, Q5. Describe the steps you can take to ensure a person with dementia feels valued , included and able to engage in daily life. Unit-4, Q6. Describe the practices that could make a person with dementia feel excluded. Unit-4, Q7. Explain why it is important to include individuals with dementia in all aspects of their care. Unit-4, Q8. Describe how an older person's experience of dementia may be different to a younger person who develops dementia. Unit-4, Q9. Mr Singh is a 75 year old gentleman who moved to England from India when he was in his 30s. Mr Singh is a practicing Sikh. He does speak English but because of his dementia he has reverted to only speaking in Punjabi. Describe the steps you could take to gain knowledge and understanding of Mr Singh's needs and preferences. Unit-4, Q10. Sophie is a 39 year old lady who has Down's syndrome. She has also developed dementia which is progressing quite quickly. Sophie has been admitted to a care facility which specialises in supporting people who have learning disabilities and also have dementia. Describe the knowledge and understanding that the staff would need in order to work in a person-centred way with Sophie.

1.4 The impact the behaviours of carers and others may have on an individual with dementia include becoming more confused and frustrated as they do not understand what you are telling, are using body language that suggests something different to what you are saying. They may feel you are telling them off or

Dementia is an extremely common disease among the elderly, with 4 million Americans currently suffering from the Alzheimer’s type alone. Figures show that 3% of people between the ages of 65-74 suffer from the disease, rapidly increasing to 19% for the 75-84 age bracket, and as high as 47% for the over 85s. Therefore, it is easy to see why Dementia is such a large part of many people’s lives, whether they are suffering from the condition themselves, or have an elderly relative who requires full time care just to undertake simple day to day tasks. The disease can be extremely traumatic for the patient and their families, as the person, who may have been extremely lively and bright throughout their

One of my main questions was whether I could do anything emotionally to cope with Alzheimer’s and with that search I had better luck. One of my favorite pieces of information I found was to face your feelings head on “think of all emotions...positive and negative...be as sad as you want...work through anger and frustration...these are healthy feelings...it’s common to feel love and anger at the same time” Taken from a paper published on (“Alzheimer’s Association website”). The next thing I found that helped me personally was how to deal with guilt, personally I’ve experienced feeling guilty when taking a break or not being there for my grandma when she needed me, as well as regretting things I had done before knowing about the illness. Something interesting I found that I would’ve never thought of was to continue to participate in as many activities as possible.(“Alzheimer’s Association” pg. ) I also found that a good way to keep an emotional connection longer is to personally connect with the sufferer. A few ways to do that is to keep eye contact with throughout the conversation, to always refer to them by name when talking, continue the conversation as long as possible because is makes the person with AD feel better about themselves, and be aware of the body language you’re presenting (“Grief and loss as Alzheimer’s progresses” pg. ). I would say the most essential piece of information I learned was the best thing I can do is just comfort the person with AD and make their time left as easy as

Dementia effects your memory and a person’s ability to achieve a normal everyday task and activities.

An intervention was developed to decrease behavioral disturbances and increase pleasant events for individuals with dementia based on the theory of PLST (Gerdner & Hall & Buckwalter 2002). The approach consists of educating family caregivers how to identify problem-solving strategies and incorporate environmental modifications. These activities are meant to be designed at the individual's targeted level of functioning and support ADL tasks (Logsdon & McCurry & Teri

Dementia is the loss of brain function it’s most likely to affect memory , thinking , language , and behavior. With certain caregivers they should feel comfortable because they can have a lot of frustrations during this time . According to “What Does Dementia Feel Like” it states “it's the feeling you get when things don't make sense or you don't know what you should be doing. If someone seems angry with you it can feel terrible remember that it's not your fault. They may not be able to control their emotions anymore.” Caregivers should always stay calm and repeat what was being said to make the patients feel more comfortable like you are on their side.

This signifies that not all people who have dementia exhibit disruptive behavioral traits and the elements that contribute to whether a certain behavior is disruptive or challenging will depend on the setting in which these manners transpire and the explanation that others give for particular behaviors of each individual patient. However, demanding behavior has proven to be a substantial part of the degenerative process for dementia patients and has a significant effect on the quality of life for patients, family members and caregivers (Osborne, Simpson, Stokes,