Essay On Understand The Process And Experience Of Dementia

for England (QCF) and Edexcel Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care (Adults) for Wales and

Every person with dementia and reactions to the circumstances is unique, which may be related to the progressive changes in the brain

There are many different types of dementia and causes of dementia. The first cause is Alzheimer’s disease, which is caused by nerve cells dying in certain areas of the brain. This therefore also affects the connection between the affected nerve cell causing them to deteriorate. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia.

Alzheimer’s disease affects the world greatly, and the numbers of victims are growing. Alzheimer’s disease affects everyone affiliated with the sufferer. Alzheimer’s disease devastates the brain and its ability to function. The issue is sensitive, complicated, and is negatively impacting the world. Alzheimer’s disease may not always be fatal, but “Alzheimer’s disease has no survivors. It destroys brain cells and causes memory changes, erratic behaviors and loss of body functions. It slowly and painfully takes away a person’s identity, ability to connect with others, think, eat, talk, walk, and find his or her way home” (“What is Alzheimer’s”). This tragic disease impacts over five million people in the United States. Alzheimer’s disease touches all, and it is essential to understand the basics of Alzheimer’s.

As people age their need for care might highly increase depending of their health issues and needs. Not only does the frail older adult need to live in an environment that’s safe, it also needs to make them feel comfortable. Someone who have possibly early stages of dementia needs to live in an environment that will make living as easy as possible for the individual. It is also important that the environment in which the individual will live in provides a sense of encouragement for the person.

Until the end of the 19th century, dementia was a much broader clinical concept. It included mental illness and any type of psychosocial incapacity, including conditions that could be reversed.[74] Dementia at this time simply referred to anyone who had lost the ability to reason, and was applied equally to psychosis of mental illness, "organic" diseases like syphilis that destroy the brain, and to the dementia associated with old age, which was attributed to "hardening of the arteries."

These changes seen, one would never be able to relate to. The whole human being is lost, their mind, body and soul. Normally, when age related change occurs, things are forgotten but often remembered later. (“Is it Alzheimer’s Disease?” 2012) some people may experience changes in their ability to develop and follow a plan or work with numbers. They may have trouble following a familiar recipe or keeping track of monthly bills. They may have difficulty concentrating and take much longer to do things than they did before. Normal age related change may be having trouble balancing a check book or something equally complex (“Is it Alzheimer’s Disease?,” 2012). People with Alzheimer's often find it hard to complete daily tasks. Sometimes, people may have trouble driving to a familiar location, managing a budget at work or remembering the rules of a favorite game. Typical age related change may be the occasional need to help to use the settings on a microwave or to record a television show (“Is it Alzheimer’s Disease?,” 2012). People with Alzheimer's can lose track of dates, seasons and the passage of time. They may have trouble understanding something if it is not happening immediately. Sometimes they may forget where they are or how they got there. Typical age related change may be forgetting the day of the week but eventually remembering (“Is it Alzheimer’s Disease?”, 2012). For some people, having vision problems is a sign of Alzheimer's. They may have difficulty reading, judging distance and determining color or contrast, which may cause problems with driving. Typical age related change may be vision related problems due to cataracts (“Is it Alzheimer’s Disease?”, 2012). People with Alzheimer's may have trouble following or joining a conversation. They may stop in the middle of a conversation and have no idea

Etiology again is a vast consideration in dementia, known causes being close to 75, including neurodegenerative diseases (eg: Alzheimer disease, Pick disease, dementia with Lewy bodies), vascular diseases (eg: multi-infarct dementia, Binswanger disease), endocrine disorders (eg: diabetes, thyroid disease), vitamin deficiencies (eg: B12, thiamine), systemic diseases (eg: respiratory diseases, anemia), other neurologic disorders (eg: normal pressure hydrocephalus, head injury, tumors, multiple sclerosis), and infections (eg: syphilis, encephalitis, HIV, Creutzfeldt- Jakob disease). Approximately 13% of cases have a potentially reversible cause of dementia, such as drug toxicity, depression, thyroid disease, vitamin B12 deficiency, and normal pressure hydrocephalus (Eastley & Wilcock,

As a student nurse training within the health profession, I realised that a lot of patients whom are at old age experience dementia. During my first placement, I was working in the rehabilitation ward at Broadmeadows Health Service working under the guidance of my mentor, taking care of a seventy-eight-year-old patient, Mr Joseph. Mr Joseph was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, end stage kidney failure and respiratory distress. During his stay in the hospital he had a regular schedules of dialysis, which was performed every other day, four hours each time. I had been asked by Mr Joseph personally to be taken to the dialysis theatre to proceed his dialysis. However, during handover that morning, I was informed that Mr Joseph’s

Each person may experience dementia in different ways. Fluctuation of needs and abilities It is not fully known why somebody with dementia can have ‘good days’ and ‘bad days’. Part of the answer for this could be because we all have good and bad days. This very much depends on how we are feeling, how much sleep we have had, what activity we are doing and how much we want to do that activity. If you do not like doing something, it seems to take forever to get it over and done with. The time drags and your level of boredom or uninterest rises. On the other hand, when you are doing something you enjoy, the time rushes by so that before you know it the activity comes to an end. This theory could also relate to the person with dementia. If the person

Dementia develops when the parts of the brain that are involved with learning, memory, decision-making, and language are affected by one or more of a variety of infections or diseases. The most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer's disease, but there are as many as 50 other known causes. Most of these causes are very rare.

Reflective Writing: Critical Incident: caring for a patient who was suffering from dementia in a nursing home

Alzheimer's sickness is the most widely recognized reason for dementia. It takes its name from the therapist Alois Alzheimer, who in the mid twentieth century was the main individual to portray the illness. After some time, individuals who have Alzheimer's lose their memory and capacity to think. Introduction in space and time turn out to be progressively troublesome, and it is likewise harder for them to oversee alone in regular daily existence. Those influenced require more help as the infection advances.

Problems with language. Everyone has trouble finding the right word sometimes, but a person with Alzheimer's disease may forget simple words or substitute inappropriate words, making his or her sentences difficult to understand.

I believe that the above statement if false, I have personal experience showing that you do not develop dementia if you live long enough. My grandmother lived to be 102 years old and was of very sound mind, with no signs of dementia. It is shown that the rates of dementia increase with age, but being demented is not a normal part of aging (Segal, Qualls & Smyer, 2011). Looking at trends that are shown in older adults actually show that with age mental distress or diseases decrease as age increases and older adults have the lowest rate of mental disorders of any age group (Segal, Qualls & Smyer, 2011). There is one other pattern that is noticeable when it comes to mental