Dementia: the Result of the Disorders of Brain - Assignment Example

? 10 May Dementia Dementia is not the of a particular disease. It is indeed an umbrella terms used for a range of symptoms which are the result of the disorders of brain. “Dementia is a loss of brain function that occurs with certain diseases. It affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, and behavior” (“Health Guide”). The intellectual functioning of the patients of dementia becomes impaired and affects their relationships and everyday life. The ability of the patients of dementia to solve their problems and control their emotions is reduced. Many patients of dementia experience changes in the personality and such behavioral issues as delusions, hallucinations, and agitation. Memory loss is an important indicator of dementia, though a person suffering from loss of memory may not necessarily have dementia. Dementia is one of the most common diseases among old people all over the world, though a considerable number of people below the age limit of 65 years are the patients of dementia. In the UK alone, as many as 700,000 people suffer from dementia. The risk of an individual to experience dementia increases as he/she ages. After the age of 65 years, the risk of dementia becomes two-fold every five to six years. A lot of old people suffer from dementia, and cognitive impairment is frequently encountered in the setting of acute care. “This is not likely to change in the near future as demographic studies predict a steady increase in the average age of the population over the course of this century and a rise in the number of people with dementia that reaches almost one million in the UK by 2020” (Burgess, Page, and Hardman). There has occurred a change in people’s perceptions of dementia. In the past, it was thought of as a kind of fever and was not taken very seriously. People misunderstood it generally and adopted fatalistic attitudes towards dementia. Many thought that the patient of dementia can be given no treatment for cure. In the early phases of dementia, loss of memory was considered to be a regular effect of the ageing of the patient, and was thus ignored. Nowadays, people consider dementia as the mental health services’ cutting edge which encourages the changing care cultures with an emphasis upon the individuality and strength of people rather than their deficiencies. The model of care for dementia has undergone a transition from its medical to the social dimension. Clinicians and therapists tend to know the personality and life histories of the patients of dementia so that their well-being can be ensured. A new philosophy of treatment of the patients of dementia has surfaced over the years, which originates in the social psychology. This is essentially a person-centered culture in which the nurses tend to incorporate the philosophical principles into the creative professional practices. This has led to the development of an evidence base in terms of the myriad of qualitative research studies. Knowledge and awareness of the lived dementia experience has caused the nurses to endorse and apply the principles of participation, empowerment and inclusion in the nursing practice. These principles have influenced the processes of assessment of dementia, sharing of its diagnosis, and the treatment given to the patients after its diagnosis. Over the years, nurses have acquired the skills required in all of these areas. This has brought a transition from the old degenerative model of the disease to the concept of positivity. Nowadays, people think of dementia as a disability which can be adapted to instead of an illness, which may lead the patient to death. There are several causes of dementia, though 75 per cent of the cases of dementia pertain to vascular dementia together with the Alzheimer’s type of dementia. Pick’s disease is a common cause of dementia. Other diseases leading a patient to the state of dementia include but are not limited to Huntington’s disease, Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Head trauma, and Parkinson’s disease. Several degenerative diseases related to the central nervous system are responsible for dementia. These diseases may be considered as the types of dementia, and include such diseases as Pick’s disease, Senile dementia, Multiple Sclerosis, and Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus. The intra cranial causes of dementia include tumors, aneurysm, and chronic abscesses. Dementia also has several vascular causes of dementia including stroke, multi-infarct dementia, hypertension, carotid artery’s occlusion, and cranial arthritis. There is a whole range of endocrine and metabolic disorders that may cause dementia in an individual. Such disorders include hepatic failure, renal dialysis, hypoxia, renal failure, respiratory disorders, endocrinopathies, hypocalcaemia, chronic uraemia, hypercalcaemia, hyper natraemia, hypokalaemia, and remote effects of lymphoma. The nutritional causes which enhance an individual’s susceptibility to dementia include vitamin intoxication and niacin. Excessive intake of Vitamin D or Vitamin A may cause Paget’s disease in the individual. Dementia may also result from several traumatic events that an individual may have experienced in the past like repeated head injuries, and single head injury. Senile dementia is a type of dementia which generally occurs when the patient has crossed the age limit of 65 years. There are several types of senile dementia including simple deterioration, and paranoid reaction. The most common causes of senile dementia are the degenerative brain changes. Nursing management in dementia is about maintaining the optimal cognitive functions. Maintenance of physical safety is one of the most important duties of a nurse taking care of a patient of dementia. Nurses tend to reduce the environmental confusion by approaching the patients calmly, greeting them and introducing themselves to the patients, removing unnecessary utensils from the room in order to make the environment calmer, maintaining a regular schedule of activities for the patient, and providing the patients with memory aids like labeled items in the room, reminding notes, and lists of activities that they need to do on daily basis. Nurses increase the environmental cues for the patients to improve the quality of communication with the patients. This is achieved by providing environmental cues for the orientation to person, time, and place. The patients are given reasons for every action taken by the nurse. For example, before turning the lights in the room on in the evening, the nurse tells the patient that the sun is about to set, so the lights need to be turned on. The nurse administers the drugs and makes the patient take their right dose at the right time. While nursing a patient of dementia, the nurse should never leave the drug by the patient or there is a risk of overdosing. The nurse monitor’s the temperature of the patient’s food so that it may not cause burns in the mouth. The nurse allows the patient a sense of freedom and independence which is one of the essentials of a happy life. This is achieved by allowing the patients to freely move in a safe environment, though the nurses constantly watch over the patients so as to make sure that they are not caught in accidents. The patients of dementia may feel agitation because of restraints in their environment, so all restraints are removed. The nurses place identification tags on the patients in order to make sure, that they are led to their respective wards. Nursing management of the patients of dementia calls for the maintenance of the psychological functioning of the patients. Nurses tend to reduce the patients’ exposure to situations that may provoke anxiety in them. This imparts a need for the nurses to have high level of emotional intelligence in order to treat the patients of dementia in the right manner. The nurses have to be patient and forgetful. They need to repeat their sentences if desired by the patients. It is important for the nurse to spend considerable time with the patient, and listen to what he/she has to say. “Simple structured stimuli are easiest to interpret, for example call the patient by name just before lunch, tell him the exact time and about the lunch” (“Nursing Management”). Dementia cannot be cured with a certain treatment as such, though the symptoms can be reduced so as to help the patient live a normal life. Treatment generally includes cognitive behavioral therapy and medication (“Dementia” 14). The drugs do not reverse the brain damage, though they are helpful in reducing the progression of disease and improvement of the symptoms. The cognitive behavioral therapy tends to improve the patients’ behavior, though the effects of therapy are not as objective as they are when it is used for the treatment of patients with psychological disorders. Nurses have a very important role to play in the treatment of the patients of dementia. Specialist nurses of the mental health who specialize in dementia are known as Admiral Nurses. They work both with the patients of dementia and the family carers, in all sorts of settings including the community. Admiral Nurses work in close collaboration with other professionals whose efforts are directed at improving the quality of life of the dementia patients as well as their family members. Admiral Nurses make use of several intervention techniques which enable the patients to live a normal life with dementia. Admiral Nurses perform a range of responsibilities that include but are not limited to providing skilled assessment of the patients of dementia and their carers, providing the family carers with useful advice and guidance upon various aspects of the care of patients of dementia, working with the patients and their carers throughout starting from the diagnosis of the disease, and working with the organizations and professionals involved in the provision of co-ordinated care to the patients of dementia. In the contemporary age, with so much knowledge of the etiology and treatment options for the patients of dementia, nurses tend to make a dynamic approach towards the care of the patients of dementia, so that they can enjoy their lives like others. The nurses working in the memory clinics have introduced and managed the medications to cure the Alzheimer’s disease, while the community psychiatric nurses and the admiral nurses provide the patients with both education and counseling to help them optimize on their potential to fight the disease. These days, the dementia specialists and liaison nurses provide quality care in all areas in general and the acute hospital areas in particular. They provide the patients as well as their family members with individualized care, and place huge emphasis upon the involvement of both the patients and their family members in meaningful communication and activities. “Nurse researchers in academic centres are constantly evaluating the impact of innovative practice, while growing numbers of consultant nurses are pushing the boundaries of professional nursing practice into new and challenging areas” (Burgess, Page, and Hardman). This has created a lot of distance between the old perception of dementia as an illness with many physical implications, and its modern perception of a disability whose effects can be minimized with proper care and treatment. Dementia is now perceived as a dynamic specialty which is controllable by a strong relationship between the patients of dementia, their family members, and the nurses. The kind of performance deficit experienced by a certain patient depends upon the interaction between the age-based stereotypes of self-categorization, and such stereotypes of aging as deficit expectations. (Haslam et al.) studied the effects of the deficit expectations and self-categorization related to age upon the assessment of dementia through clinical tests. They found that “performance decline on tests of memory was most apparent when participants expected aging to involve a decline in memory, whereas performance decline in general cognitive ability was most marked when participants expected aging to involve more global and widespread cognitive decline” (Haslam et al. 5). The type of nursing care that suits the needs of an individual patient of dementia depends upon the cause of dementia, its onset and the level of severity. Nursing care in dementia is fundamentally directed at improving the quality of life of the patients of dementia. Although there exists no effective cure of the cerebral pathology, yet measures can be taken to enhance the patients’ adjustment to the disease and their ability to cope with the stress resulting from the disease. Works Cited: Burgess, Lorraine; Page, Sean; and Hardman, Philip. “Changing attitudes in dementia care and the role of nurses.” Nursing Times. Vol. 99. Issue 38. 23 Sep. 2003. Web. 9 May 2012. . “Dementia.” MedicineNet. 2012. Web. 10 May 2012. . “Health Guide.” The New York Times. 10 May 2012. Web. 10 May 2012. . Haslam, Catherine; Morton, Thomas A.; Haslam, Alexander S.; Varnes, Laura; Graham, Rosanna; and Gamaz, Leila. ““When the Age Is In, the Wit Is Out”: Age-Related Self-Categorization and Deficit Expectations Reduce Performance on Clinical Tests Used in Dementia Assessment.” Psychology and Aging. pp. 1-7, 2012. “Nursing Management of Dementia.” 22 April 2011. Web. 9 May 2012. . Read More