Understanding Dementia

Dementia is a nonspecific illness syndrome. It affects the areas of cognition that is memory, attention, language, and problem solving. It’s a group of symptoms or a syndrome caused by disorders affecting the brain. Demented seniors may not be able to comprehend well doing the usual activities of daily living. They also lose their ability to solve problems and control of their emotions affecting their personality, mood, and behavior. This is the reason seniors need dementia help. Dementia develops when learning, memory, and decision-making are affected by one or more infections or diseases. Most common cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s. Alzheimer’s disease causes degeneration or loss of nerve cells in the brain.

Signs and Symptoms of Dementia

Generally, dementia causes the following:

1. Memory loss
2. Problem using language – incorrect use of words, inability to find the right word
3. Personality changes – depressed, fearful, anxious, emotionally unresponsive
4. Disorientation
5. Problem in doing everyday activities
6. Disruptive or inappropriate behavior – less able to control their behavior

Progression of Dementia

As the disease progresses, increased dementia help and care is required from friends, family, and institutions. The round-the-clock care, supervision, and dementia help are needed to prevent seniors from harming themselves and others. Getting dementia help requires lots of patience, understanding, and careful planning on the part of the caregivers. Seniors with dementia often develop behavioral problems because of dissatisfaction. Caregivers should try to prevent any situation that triggers seniors getting frustrated. Frustration usually causes behavioral change.

Day to day living

Demented seniors should be encouraged to do more activities that relax their mind. Mentally stimulating dementia activities may slow down the decline of cognitive function in some seniors with dementia. Dementia activities such as games, music, arts and crafts, puzzles, and many more are a tremendous help to them. The selection of appropriate dementia activities plays an important role in preventing the rapid progression of the disease.

Dementia support groups

It’s essential to be aware of the needs of both seniors and the caregivers providing dementia help. Caregivers play a significant role in preventing the progression of the disease. Caregivers at the same time should be given time-off or break from work to relax and rejuvenate. It is also useful to search for dementia help support groups in the area. This will help family caregivers get temporary relief from providing constant care to their loved one. It’s extremely beneficial for families to get time-off from the round-the-clock care giving demands. Adult day care centers offer dementia help, relief, and give breaks to the caregivers for a period of time.  Eventually, many seniors will need the services of long-term dementia care facilities or full time nursing home at the later stage of the disease. This needs planning ahead to be able to examine all options.

The emotional and physical strain of providing dementia help for someone can be exhausting and overwhelming. Dementia support groups can often help caregivers deal with the demands of caring for seniors with dementia.

Tags : Care, Dementia

By : Maria Luisa Agustin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 at 12:26 pm and is filed under Dementia/Alzheimer's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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