Caregiving and dementia

The book that I chose to read for this class was Still Alice by Lisa Genova. The reason that I chose to read this book out of all three of our choices was because a movie is actually currently in production called Still Alice which is based directly off this book. I was actually quite surprised to learn that this was Genova’s first book because it is so well written. Book Review: To start off, this book is about an older woman named Alice Howland who is professor at the prestigious Harvard…

Similar to any other disease, Alzheimer’s has aspects that are unique to the individual. While there are common symptoms that everyone will experience there are certain ones that are unique to certain individuals. There are many aspects in a dementia patient’s life that is affected. They are affected psychologically, emotionally, culturally, spiritually, and socially. While working with the family of a person who is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and the individual you need to be aware of what…

Alice is an amazing person who attempts to the best of her abilities to not allow the disease that is slowly destroying her mind to destroy her completely; she attempts to maintain what memories she can. The following quote from Alice’s speech at the Dementia Care Conference hit me in a soft spot and it stayed in my mind, I remembered it long after completing that portion of the…

documentary, I constantly compared the techniques used in the nursing homes to those discussed in class. In class, we discussed the elderly and Geriatrics. The lectures dealt with elderly who had neurological disorders like: Depression, Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, etc. Specifically, in the documentary, music was used to treat patients like Denise, a bipolar schizophrenic patient, her illness may not have improved, but she was able to feel more “alive inside” and a…

types of dementia and common signs and symptoms Dementia is what’s known as an “irreversible brain disorder affecting different parts of the brain, causing an effect on a range of functions” Bartle (2007). Every from of dementia is a progressive condition, this means that the brain will become damaged more over time, this therefore means a person’s ability to remember, communicate and understand what goes on around them may will decline. When researches such as scientists look at dementia they…

factors are based mostly around lifestyle choices, making it seem that there are ways that one can prevent the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. 2. Respite Care (p.125): This concept is crucial for the family and caregivers of those helping Alzheimer or dementia patients. It is important because it allows those in care positions to get deserved breaks and prevent or yield the stress that comes with that care. That stress…

Vascular dementia is defined by Zhong et al. (2016) as a general dementia caused by a series of cerebral vascular factors such as ischemic cerebral vascular disease. The dementia is very similar to Alzheimer’s disease and they share some symptoms such as impaired memory and cognitive function. Some of the non-cognitive symptoms of vascular dementia include tinnitus, sleeping disorder, numbness of the extremities, and emotion changes. Calabrese et al. (2016) believes there are two principal…

INTRODUCTION Both alcohol use and depressive symptoms are prevalent in adolescents and young adults (1–3). Additionally, several studies report the co-occurrence of alcohol use and depressive symptoms (4–6). For example, of young depressive adolescents under grade 10, 39% female vs. 14.8% male have ever used alcohol (7). Given co-occurrence of underage alcohol use and early depressive symptoms, disentangling the sequence of alcohol initiation (AI) and depressive symptom onset (DSO) will provide…

Dementia is defined as a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking, and social abilities severely enough to interfere with daily functioning (Mayo, 2016). This disease is so much more than normal age-related changes. Dementia itself is not a disease, but a general term for loss of memory and other mental abilities that impact daily life. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Lewy body Dementia, Vascular Dementia, and Parkinson’s Disease, are a few examples of diseases that cause dementia. Education…

“Music has power – especially for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.” (AFA Website 2016). Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible neurodegenerative condition (that deteriorates significantly over time) of a patient’s memory and daily bodily functions. Since humans are living longer and our older population is increasingly getting larger there are more and more people suffering from Alzheimer’s than ever before. There are currently over 5.4 million Americans suffering…