The number of elderly people suffering from demented disorders is growing from year to year. Caring for such patients is a real test for loved ones. At the same time, doctors do not have a single idea of the disease and what to advise relatives. Gerontologist Laura Wayman wrote the book “Let’s Talk about Dementia”, where she told how to find a common language with a person losing cognitive functions.
“This book will be a clear manual for tens of thousands of relatives who are completely at a loss at the moment when they discover that the close dementia. We were very much waiting for this book and give it to all our doctors and assistants for the care of as educational material, ”says Alexei Sidnev, the head of the private Russian network of boarding houses for the elderly Senior Group, who supported the publication of the book in Russian. – For a wide audience, Laura Wayman’s book is a fascinating reading. The author with love and respect tells about another universe – the universe of man with dementia “.
This book is true-the guide “on the universe, where all the nasty-worship, as in” Alice in Wonderland “. We formulated the top 10 facts that you need to know about dementia-this is a short guide based on the book of Wayman.
1. Caring for a man with dementia – hard work
According to the American National Association of Association of Relatives of People with Dementia, the load when caring for such patients is three times higher than the usual. Care for demented patients psychologically much more complicated than caring for a patient with a physiological disease is incredible stress. To reduce the emotional load, the caring must realize that it is not in his power to change anything. The only thing he can do is to give care and love.
Positive answers to all the emotions of the ward will help maintain peace and confidence. This will benefit both: the patient will absorb and “puzzle” the emotional state of the caring. Moreover, even a patient, almost completely parted with cognitive functions, is capable of this.
2. Awareness
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is a way to facilitate the care process
The lack of knowledge about dementia and its specifics is the problem of the whole world. This leads to the social stigmatization of patients and their families, delays the diagnosis – which means that it prevents you from starting treatment in a timely manner.
Deviation of dementia by relatives of patients, due to fear, getting a shortcut to match the lepel inhibits the beginning of the correct treatment. The only way to confront this is knowledge about dementia. And the higher their level, the higher the loyalty of society and families, the better the provision of medical care. Laura Wayman writes: “He who really understands what dementia is, will choose the path of adoption, not denial.”.
“A caring who is familiar with the specifics of dementia, thinks about the future and cares about his own health. He will not change this principle, even if for this the ward will have to move to the boarding house for people with memory disorders or to the house of accompanied living. As you begin to expand knowledge of dementia, there will be a deep, meaning -filled relationship between you and your ward. This will give you strength and confidence for caring for a loved one “.
3. Dementia is an irreversible loss of certain brain functions
Dementia comes from the Latin de (“from”) and Mens (“mind”, “mind”) and means the state of separation from its own mind.
According to the Association of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia is a “spectrum of symptoms associated with memory disorders and other mental abilities that are serious enough to interfere with human everyday activity”. This spectrum is very diverse: the progressive loss of short -term memory, speech disorders, problems with the performance of familiar actions, disorientation in time and space, difficulties in processing information, complexity with abstract thinking, reduced ability or complete inability to think sensibly, a sense of loss, fear, paranoia,changeable mood, change in personality, character.
Irreversible loss of short -term memory and a decrease in cognitive functions are caused by organic brain damage. The most common causes are Alzheimer’s disease (60–80% of patients have it) or ischemic stroke. Also the reasons, and there are more than a hundred of them, there may be injuries of the brain, Parkinson’s disease. There is a dementia with Levy Taurus. Most often, two causes and more. Different types of dementia have different signs, speed and size of regression, features of the patient’s behavior. Therefore, it is very important to make an accurate diagnosis.
Unfortunately, a quick and simple way of diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease and other causes that cause dementia has not yet been developed. New technologies make it possible only to more reasonably assume what caused impaired brain function.