Unit 40, Dementia Care
Dementia is a progressive disorder that will affect how you’re brain functions and particularly your ability to remember, think and reason. Dementia usually affects older people and are approximately 820,000 people in the UK with the disorder, and around 15,000 are under the age of 65. If the dementia is recognised early enough that are a lot of things that you can be done to make the quality of life better. In a lot of dementia cases the symptoms and quality of life will progress and get worse over a number of years. The most common symptoms of a dementia patient are:
* Forgetfulness, maybe forgetting names of people that you have been in contact with every day, or forgetting what you did just hours or days ago. * Having difficulty understanding what people are saying, even simple instructions and retaining them. * Picking up on people commenting on your forgetfulness. * Difficulty making decisions.
There are many different types of dementia and they all have different signs and symptoms and will all progress differently. Some of these are: * Alzheimer’s disease. * Vascular Dementia. * Lowy Bodies. * Pick’s Disease. * CJD. * Huntington’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease has many different signs and symptoms and they will change as the disease progresses, it is an average that an Alzheimer’s patient will live eight years after their diagnosis. In the early stages of Alzheimer’s they will have difficulty remembering conversations you may have had with them or events that may have recently happened such as birthdays, weddings or deaths. Another sign may be that they have lost control of balancing their finances and cannot manage them by themselves, this is in mind they will have difficulty when it comes to doing shopping. Everyday tasks such as cooking, getting dressed and keeping up personal hygiene may become difficult and they may need help with doing these tasks. A person with Alzheimer’s may not recognise familiar
* Forgetfulness, maybe forgetting names of people that you have been in contact with every day, or forgetting what you did just hours or days ago. * Having difficulty understanding what people are saying, even simple instructions and retaining them. * Picking up on people commenting on your forgetfulness. * Difficulty making decisions.
There are many different types of dementia and they all have different signs and symptoms and will all progress differently. Some of these are: * Alzheimer’s disease. * Vascular Dementia. * Lowy Bodies. * Pick’s Disease. * CJD. * Huntington’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease has many different signs and symptoms and they will change as the disease progresses, it is an average that an Alzheimer’s patient will live eight years after their diagnosis. In the early stages of Alzheimer’s they will have difficulty remembering conversations you may have had with them or events that may have recently happened such as birthdays, weddings or deaths. Another sign may be that they have lost control of balancing their finances and cannot manage them by themselves, this is in mind they will have difficulty when it comes to doing shopping. Everyday tasks such as cooking, getting dressed and keeping up personal hygiene may become difficult and they may need help with doing these tasks. A person with Alzheimer’s may not recognise familiar
References: http://www.traumaticbraininjuryatoz.org/Caregivers-Journey/Session-One/Managing-Physical-Effects-of-TBI/Headache/Related-Information/Other-Physical-Effects/Visual-Spatial-Problems.aspx http://www.ageuk.org.uk/health-wellbeing/conditions-illnesses/dementia/ http://www.dementiaguide.com/symptomlibrary/personalitychanges/low_self_esteem/ http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=161 http://www.fightdementia.org.au/understanding-dementia/vascular-dementia.aspx http://www.alzheimer.ca/en/About-dementia/Dementias/Vascular-Dementia http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=113