How Does Alzheimer's Disease Affect Family Members

One of the many challenges posed by people suffering from dementia is communication. As this disease advances the brain begins to deteriorate by showing signs of lost memories, clear thought, and a lack of personal hygiene. In addition, mood swinges become evident stemming from the frustration of losing their ability to remember and communicate clearly with others. Other noticeable changes occur in the personality and behaviour patterns, such as a lower regard for personal hygiene.

There are many things the person with dementia can do to cope. Staying active, exercising regularly, maintaining contact with other people and finding someone they can trust to discuss help with decision-making. (4) Those are just some of the many things they can do. However helping the person with dementia is quite difficult also can be physically and emotionally draining. (4) The caregiver also needs coping skills to deal with the frustration, worry, and grief that they may feel when caring for someone with this disease. (4) Especially if it’s a family member. They will need to ask for support from friends and other family members. (4) It would be helpful for them to join a support group, learn as much about the disease as possible, ask a lot of questions of doctor’s even social workers. Taking care of themselves emotionally and spiritually are other important factors.

What do you know about Alzheimer's? Alzheimer's is a progressive disease that attacks the brain and affects all aspects of a person's life, it is fatal and made up mostly of memory loss and confusion symptoms, which increase as time goes by. My research on dementia has helped me broaden my understanding of the short story "Babysitting Helen". It taught me that Helen's symptoms, memory loss and confusion , trouble performing day-to-day tasks, and repeating of actions and words are normal for people with dementia or Alzheimer's.

My grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in early 2005. Visiting him every few years, I could see his recognition abilities deteriorating as the disease progressed. Eventually, he reached the point where he nearly forgot everyone except the one person he had spent the most time with; his wife. At the time of his death in 2013, he was in the advanced stage of Alzheimer’s. My experience with my grandfather and realizing that although many people have to go through this, there is not much awareness of these diseases, inspired me to choose dementia as my topic of interest.

Dementia continues to grow as a condition diagnosed among elderly females, researchers have hypothesized that this is due to longer female life expectancy (Podcasy & Epperson, 2016). Allowing a client with dementia to stay in their own can have several benefits such as joy, comfort, socially connected, maintain identity, and have meaning in life; however, in many cases, clients with dementia require complex continuous care (CCC) to support their health and wellness needs and the needs of their family (Lilly

When the man arrives at home from the hospital, he begins to remember that “this is his house” (Cherry 15). In the poem, “Alzheimer’s,” Kelly Cherry expresses the confusions and difficulties a man with dementia struggles with in life. The poem explores the chaos of the man who comes home from the hospital and his conflicts with his memory loss. The speaker is close to the man and is frustrated with him at the beginning of the poem, but the speaker’s feeling toward the man eventually shifts to sadness. Caring for a person with Alzheimer’s disease can be painful and heartbreaking, though people need to understand that familiar circumstances and with family support can help the patients whose mind is gradually changing. Cherry poetically expresses

Going through this uncertainty and confusion often causes people to retreat to the safety of established memories, and they begin to lose awareness of the world around them. Nurses and other care givers who have never met these behaviors before often do not know how to respond when a person with dementia asks difficult questions, such as requesting to see a mother who has passed away. It can also be difficult to know how to reply if they believe they need to go to work or collect children from school.

The Long Island Alzheimer’s Foundation (LIAF) is a social model day program for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and other related memory disorders to help improve their quality of life. LIAF is located in Port Washington, NY and offers services to treat individuals with early, moderate and late stage Alzheimer’s. The agency population is comprised of male and female participates with ages ranging from mid-fifties to late-nineties who all suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. LIAF biopsychosocial are done during a client’s initial intake and reviews are conducted quarterly by a Social Worker.

Being a caregiver to someone with Alzheimer’s is a title and life one must occupy and fully commit themselves to. In the beginning stages of Jan’s diagnosis, Barry vowed to himself that no matter what, he would be with Jan every step of the way, until the very end of her life. He was patient with her and only wanted to be with her every second of every day. In his mind, Jan was going to beat the odds. He would maintain his role as her sole caregiver and together they would struggle through the disease. To his dismay, he quickly realized, “The Disease mocks not just the one whose mind it is stealing,

As a statutory adult social worker, I am responding to a service user’s self-referral regarding support for herself and husband, Ian, on hospital advice after Ian suffered a couple of falls. Jackie, 69, is a carer for Ian, 66, who has increasing needs due to dementia. My duty is to conduct a needs assessment for Ian and a carer assessment for Jackie to identify the impact upon their wellbeing, including the effect on relationships with others (Care Act, 2015:c23:p1:s1). The visit’s objective is to obtain better outcomes and maintain independence to enable Ian to remain at home for longer. These aims are achieved by assisting the couple to utilise their own strengths, like skills or help from family and friends, and signposting them to suitable universal or early help services specialising in preventative measures (Scie, 2016). My duty also involves providing comprehensive advice and information in relation to the couple 's rights and entitlements so they can make informed decisions over their choices of support (LGA, 2015).

Assisted living facilities are one of the fastest growing industries in the United States. Unfortunately, assisted living facilities have a history of being problematic. Specific cases from the movie Life and Death in Assisted Living Facilities indicates that assisted living facilities are often under staffed, poorly trained, and often admit elderly patients who are not qualified candidates for their facilities (Byker and Thompson, 2013). When taking this in to account, it is important to consider why families may admit their loved ones in to assisted living facilities. Hillier and Barrow (2015), associate problems of caregiving with the responsibility itself, the caregivers personal health, role strains, strained family relationships, ect. With all of this strain on an informal caregiver it seems most beneficial to the caregiver and the elderly individual to consider admittance in to an assisted living facility. Once a basis has been established as to why an elderly person is admitted in to an assisted living facility, further insight shall be established to denote what is considered elder abuse. In this movie, Life and Death in Assisted Living Facilities, several

Elderly abuse can take a variety of forms including physical, sexual, mental, financial, and neglect. The abuser can be anyone; a caregiver, family member, other patients, or self-inflicted. Recent research states that prevalence of elder abuse in long-term care ranges from 2% to 10% (Connor et al., 2011). According to Shaffer, Williamson, & Dooley (2007), the vulnerability of abuse can be directly related to mental illness, such as dementia, as well as the depression or resentment of caregivers. Kohl, Sanders, & Blumenthal (2012) define the populations at risk as frail elders, those with dementia, and families with a history of violence.

Care givers: caring for a family member or friend with a physical or mental illness can be stressful, exhausting, both mentally and physically, and creates a physical and psychological strain for the care giver over a period of time. The psychological well-being such as depression and stress, are frequent consequences of caregiving. The age, socioeconomic status, and the availability of informal support that caregivers have access to greatly affect their own health and well being.

Interviewing families provides the nurse with information that can help the patient and their family manage chronic illness. By asking the family questions, the nurse can gain an increased understanding and appreciation of the illness impact on the family and the family’s concerns and hopefully help soften suffering and encourage hope and healing (Wright & Leahey, 2013). Following the conclusion of the interview, the nurse can assess the success of the interview and look for opportunities to improve the next family interaction. This is the fifth installment of the family assessment of two sisters, J.A. and R.C. This final paper will discuss the personal and professional impact that this family interview process had on the interviewer and discuss any opportunities that may have been conducted differently.

The declining cognitive function and unpredictable behaviour of dementia sufferers makes caring for them a difficult and challenging task. As a result, caregivers providing care for dementia sufferers face high physical, emotional and psychological stress [1]. This causes caregivers of dementia sufferers to be at high risk of developing burn-out and other health complications. Thus, it is essential to understand the challenges and burden faced by caregivers of dementia and the resulting effect of caregiving on caregivers’ overall well-being.