Dementia Elderly Patients

Dementia is mean, mind stealing disease that affects many elderly patients in different ways. It begins with forgetting small things like where you put your car keys, and escalates into forgetting yourself and your family. Many can function well with dementia for a period of time, but then generally have to transition into receiving help from family caregivers and/or nursing facilities such as nursing homes or assisted living. Dementia can turn a normal thinking person into an irrational person who cannot be argued with or redirected, which causes much stress on caregiver’s. At home family caregivers receive the brunt of it, workers in nursing facilities can leave and go home at the end of the shift, while children and grandchildren generally
This service is provided by nursing homes; it is called respite care. The loved one would enter the nursing home for a short time, generally 5-10 days. This gives the caregiver time for a “mental health break” and lets them either go on vacation, or just time to spend elsewhere other than caring for their family member. The respite break gives the caregiver time to recollect and regain ability to care for their loved one again without getting burnt out. More often than not, the caregiver does not utilize respite. Claudia Jardim and Kenneth I. Pankenham elaborate on this in their study “Carers' Views on Respite Care for Adults with Mental Disorders” stating that “Of the 106 carers, 36% had accessed respite care and 64% had never accessed respite care; from here-on these two groups will be referred to as respite care users and non-users, respectively.” This fact could be that the caregiver doesn’t realize these services are available, or they choose not to utilize them. Many caregivers in my personal experience benefit well from respite care, they always seem less stressed and tired at the end of it than they did at the beginning. It really depends on the caregiver; some also feel that the nursing staff do not provide the same quality of care that they receive at home to their loved one. This could be true, or be contributing to the guilt most feel for admitting them, even if for a few short days. In my opinion, everyone caring for a sick relative needs to utilize respite care at least once or twice a year. Working with the elderly, especially with dementia, is very draining of not only strength but your mind as well. The mood swings make you think constantly if you are doing the right thing, or if you could do something differently to make them feel