It can mean that tasks such as making a cup of tea, or a sandwich can no longer be completed. Mobility is often affected in advanced dementia, which may mean individuals, can no longer physically, hold or lift items needed to eat and drink. People can often become withdrawn and depressed within dementia, and often this causes issues around eating, as emotional mood can greatly affect appetite. It can sometimes mean that people do not want to eat, have no will to and lack the function to have, or prepare a meal. However, Dementia can have the opposite effect.
Dementia is a syndrome associated with an ongoing decline of the brain and its abilities. This includes problems with: * memory loss * thinking speed * mental agility * language * understanding * judgment People with dementia can lose interest in their usual activities, and have problems controlling their emotions. They may also find social situations challenging, lose interest in socializing, and aspects of their personality may change. A person with dementia may lose empathy (understanding and compassion), they may see or hear things that other people do not (hallucinations), or they may make false claims or statements. As dementia affects a person's mental abilities, they may find planning and organizing difficult.
People who care for dementia sufferers may find that as the illness progresses they will have to start discussions to get the person to make conversation. This is common. Their ability to process information gets progressively weaker and their responses can become delayed. Impaired depth perception, loss of vision, loss of colour vision, loss of contrast sensitivity and hallucinations are all problems that may be associated with dementia. As a carer non-verbal communication will become important, body language, facial expressions, gestures, eye contact and tone of voice will have to be taken into account when communicating with a sufferer.
237:- 1.1: The word dementia describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language. These changes are often small to start with, but for someone with dementia they have become severe enough to affect daily life. A person with dementia may also experience changes in their mood or behaviour. 1.2: The Key functions of the brain affected by dementia are: * Language * Memory * Perception * Emotional behaviour or personality * Cognitive skills (such as calculation, abstract thinking, or judgement). 1.3: Depression, delirium and age related memory impairment could be mistaken for dementia as they all manifest with similar symptoms.
Outcome 1 - Be able to communicate with individuals with dementia 1.1 Describe how memory impairment can affect the ability of an individual with dementia to use verbal language. There are many types of dementia with differing causes. Some cause loss of language early on, such as a stroke in the speech areas. Others may have a gradual decline with the service user having difficulty finding or using appropriate words or being able to put together complete sentences anymore. It’s important you speak clearly and make sentences as simple to understand as possible when giving a service user with dementia instructions.
Memory loss about recent events may obscure the presence of intact long-term memory, personality and values that can inform decision making. Health care professionals need to be mindful of their legal, moral and ethical responsibilities towards the person with dementia, and To work collaboratively towards maintaining dignity and quality of life through effective clinical decision making. Negative Positioning … Similar to malignant social psychology (Kitwood 1998; Kitwood & Bredin 1992). Actions such as depersonalising, ignoring, treating them as infants and labelling are examples of malignant social psychology. Such positions result in the person with dementia having a reduced sense of personal worth and can compound his or her feelings of loss, cause embarrassment and humiliation.
Visual impairments can also be difficult in these situations and may affect a person’s ability to read body language, facial expressions and see gestures. Persons who have dual sensory loss will find it extremely difficult and be frustrated during day to day tasks. It can lead to loss of interests in activities and in some case may cause a person to have little or no contact with the world around them. It can have serious effects if a person misinterprets what they are being spoken to about by their family, friends and possibly medical professionals. Persons with hearing impairments would need to focus on reading lips and body language to uphold conversations just as people with visual impairments would rely on their hearing to be able to function effectively within society.
People with Alzheimer’s disease lose nerve cells which use this chemical. The other types of medication are generally used in line with anti dementia drugs due to side affects. Commonly used medications can affect people with dementia in positive and negative ways. Positive ways in which it can affect someone are, a brighter mood, it may give them the ability to perform activities such as going shopping or to social functions. It may offer reduced memory loss and a reduction in hallucinations.
They can forget to take medications, forget that they need to eat or drink or wash and change their clothes. 3.1 The cause of dementia include various diseases or infections, Drugs, head injuries or malnutrition 3.2 Signs and symptoms of the most common causes of dementia include memory loss, personality change, impaired intellectual function. A noticeable decline in communication and signs of depression, learning and remembering things are forgotten. 3.3 The risk factors for the most common causes of dementia include having a family history, smoking, having high cholesterol and drinking large amounts of alcohol. 3.4 4.1 Individuals living with dementia may experience loss of hearing, which can make things difficult for communication and experience feeling frustrated with others causing misunderstanding of commands.
These include Alzheimer’s, Vascular, Fronto-Temporal and Dementia with Lewy Bodies. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of Dementia and can lead to changes in the brains structure ad death of nerve cells. This disrupts the brains usual activity and capacity. With Alzheimer’s there is a shortage of chemicals within the brain and these lead to the symptoms of memory loss, difficulty walking, repeating themselves, poor judgement, losing interest and finding it hard to adapt to change. In the middle stages of Alzheimer’s individuals will need more support to help them eat, wash, dress and use the toilet.