Caring for Dementia Patients Long Term Care
Caring for Dementia Patients
Rodrick Williams
English 122
Professor Susan Turner – Colon
Caring for Dementia Patient
It can be very difficult caring for a patient with dementia. Most caregivers are unaware of the problems, they must face. A family member attempting to care for a loved one without training will eventually turn to a Nursing Home that has experienced staff in the care of dementia patients. Although many families feel a sense of guilt having someone else care for a loved one, it is best for all concerned. Dementia patients can be a handful for an experienced caregiver as well as those with no training. These are some of the question that should be ask when a loved is diagnosis with dementia. Why is dementia so misunderstood, what are the causes, what are the different stages of the dementia, what are the statistics, and how is it diagnosis?
Dementia defined as the loss of intellectual functions such as thinking, remembering, and reasoning of sufficient severity to interfere with a person’s daily functioning. Dementia is not a disease itself, but a group of symptoms. Many dementias are treatable and reversible. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of untreatable, irreversible dementia A German doctor named Alois Alzheimer first discovered Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) in 1906. It is a disorder of the brain, causing damage to brain tissue over a period. The disease can linger from two to twenty-five years before death results (Florida Health Care Association 2005). Some of the conditions that mimic Alzheimer’s are reversible dementia, irreversible dementia, depression, and relocation stress. Most common reactions are decline in health, inability to care for oneself, disorientation, and confusion. Treatable causes of dementia are prescription drug interactions, alcohol use, depression, delirium, dehydration, malnutrition, infections, and vision and hearing problems (Bourgeois,
Rodrick Williams
English 122
Professor Susan Turner – Colon
Caring for Dementia Patient
It can be very difficult caring for a patient with dementia. Most caregivers are unaware of the problems, they must face. A family member attempting to care for a loved one without training will eventually turn to a Nursing Home that has experienced staff in the care of dementia patients. Although many families feel a sense of guilt having someone else care for a loved one, it is best for all concerned. Dementia patients can be a handful for an experienced caregiver as well as those with no training. These are some of the question that should be ask when a loved is diagnosis with dementia. Why is dementia so misunderstood, what are the causes, what are the different stages of the dementia, what are the statistics, and how is it diagnosis?
Dementia defined as the loss of intellectual functions such as thinking, remembering, and reasoning of sufficient severity to interfere with a person’s daily functioning. Dementia is not a disease itself, but a group of symptoms. Many dementias are treatable and reversible. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of untreatable, irreversible dementia A German doctor named Alois Alzheimer first discovered Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) in 1906. It is a disorder of the brain, causing damage to brain tissue over a period. The disease can linger from two to twenty-five years before death results (Florida Health Care Association 2005). Some of the conditions that mimic Alzheimer’s are reversible dementia, irreversible dementia, depression, and relocation stress. Most common reactions are decline in health, inability to care for oneself, disorientation, and confusion. Treatable causes of dementia are prescription drug interactions, alcohol use, depression, delirium, dehydration, malnutrition, infections, and vision and hearing problems (Bourgeois,
References: Bourgeois, M. and Irvine, Blair, PH.D. Strategies of Dementia, ORCAS, Inc. 2000 Florida Health Care Association, 2005 University of Alabama Dementia and Training Program, The Deta Brain Series, 1997 National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Disease and Related Disorders Association guidelines, 1984 Lacy C, Armstrong L, Goldman M, Drug Information Handbook, Lexi-Comp, Hudson, Ohio 11th ed. 2003