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Home care services for dementia patients
Diseases affecting the human population fall in the thousands. More of them get discovered. Out of the thousands of diseases in the world, they are just grouped into two broad categories. One category is the Communicable Diseases, which consists of diseases and infections which are spread through contact of body fluids, sharing of personal items such as toothbrushes and combs, and through respiratory gases, whereby the diseases agents are passed out of a victim through the air they breathe out, and enter the victim through air breathed in.
Adopted from Latin, Dementia basically means madness of the mind. People above 65 years are the most susceptible to it. It is manifested through loss of memory progressively over time. On rare occasions, Dementia occurs before the age of 65 years, therefore it is called Early Onset Dementia. This occurs if the head has suffered a major blow or injury, therefore affecting cells of the brain. On even rare circumstances, Dementia may affect children, especially those who are severe ill and suffer from conditions such as Meningitis which in turn affect brain cells. Therefore, this condition is known as Juvenile Dementia.
A wide misconception is that Dementia is a single disease. It is not. Dementia sums up a concoction of conditions that impair memory, visual perception, problem solving ability, speech and attention among others. Dementia impairs short term memory, remembering of appointments and running cash transactions.
The unique characteristic of Dementia is progression. This simply means that the condition starts small and progressively grows worse with time. The symptoms are not hard to spot, but it is best when the doctor is the only person to do the diagnosis to avoid complications arising out of wrong improper diagnosis and prescription.
Old age, which brings with it damage of brain cells, is the main cause of Dementia. The damage impairs brain cell communication with one another. The condition becomes tricky, when one side of the brain has concentration of affected cells, therefore impairing the coordination and activities of that side of the brain. Dementia leads to emotional instability and stress during social settings.
Since there is no single way of testing Dementia, doctors run a few tests like the one for Alzheimer. Doctors do physical examinations, laboratory tests and monitor change of behaviour in certain conditions. Finding exactly what type of Dementia a patient is suffering form is difficult, because changes in the brain and symptoms tend to overlap.
The cause of the disease and severity of it determines what type of treatment should be used. However, there is no known cure for Dementia, therefore doctors and care givers try to stop or slow down the growth of the disease, and to make the patient’s life normal again.
Home care givers are in the best position to handle a Dementia patient. They are trained on how to talk with the patient, control emotions, supervise meals, train and educate, monitor and evaluate, and, provide health care to the patient. The family of the patient can do that, but a trained home care expert is the best option to enable a patient recover quickly and resume normal life.
