When recalling his grandmother’s end-stage of life care, Greg A. Sachs, MD, a geriatrician of the Indiana University Center for Aging Research, remembers that there has been little change in the care of patients with end-stage dementia in the past 30 years (Boyles, 2009). According to Sabat (2009), the need for improving the lives of patients with end-stage dementia; “constitutes a call to action that cannot and should not be ignored” (p. 1806).
In this study, I will seek to discover changes that I can make in the daily care routines of cognitively impaired patients to decrease their stress levels. I propose that small changes in their routines will result in lowering stress levels of these patients and improving their quality of life. This improvement will occur because increased stress decreases the mental systems available for cognitive processes in patients with diminished cognition, as in that of patients with a diagnosis of middle-to-end-stage Alzheimer’s disease (Sabat, 2006). This study will be the first of several sub-studies to examine opportunities for the elimination of unnecessary stressors for these cognitively impaired patients, which will then reduce the stress levels of caregivers who are caring for these patients.
For additional information and guidance, I will film the interactions of patients with their caregivers just as Rogers and his colleagues did of his counseling sessions with clients (Gundrum, Lietaer, & Van Hees-Matthijssen, 1999). The purpose of this filming will be to highlight areas needing change and to direct attention to where further changes in care guidelines can be made. I expect that because of this study, we will be able to provide new instructions in how to better commun...
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...his study as opposed to the level of interaction with these patients that existed before this study began.
1. Hypothesis: A reduction in the stress level of patients will enable patients to interact more with staff, family, and friends.
Null hypothesis: Due to the cognitively impaired diagnosis of patients, small changes in the stress levels of patients will make no changes in the interactions patients have with staff, family, and friends.
2. Hypothesis: Making changes to the bathing ritual to increase respect of the patient’s personal space and comfort will reduce anxiety in patients and increase his or her cooperation in the bathing ritual.
Null hypothesis: Because of the cognitive decline experienced by patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, there will be no reduction in anxiety levels of patients because of changes in bathing routines.
Pah-Lavan, Z. (2006). Alzheimer's disease: the road to oblivion. Journal of Community Nursing, 20(5), 4. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
However, this type of care brings a lot of unconditioned difficulties due to the constant care they have to provide the elderly people with dementia. In a recent study it was discovered that caregivers experience stress differently given the circumstance this was shown by analysis of 234 people with dementia (Robertson, Zarit, Duncan, Rovine, & Femia, 2007). The findings were that caregivers in intense and distressed groups experienced higher behaviora...
Smith , M., Gerdner, L., Hall, G. & Buckwalter, K., 2004. History, Development, and Future of the Progressively Lowered Stress Threshold: A Conceptual Model for Dementia Care, pp. 1755-1760, viewed 2 Febuary 2014, < http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.utas.edu.au/doi/10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52473.x/pdf>
(Davidson, F. G.) Due to the nature of dementia being a neuropsychological disorder, those affected by the disease tend to look like they will not require much care, which, in reality, they often require more care than the caregiver originally expected, leading to stress and burnout. Another effect caused by this can be the caregiver blaming themselves by feeling like they are failing to give proper care, which, in reality, can often be very far from the truth. If the caregiver does not receive help from anyone else, the task of watching over the victim becomes a daunting twenty for hour task. Sometimes, the caregiver won’t be allowed quality sleep. Over 66 percent of home caregivers suffer from some form of psychological or physical illness. The most common illness that is resulted from giving care to Alzheimer’s disease is depression. The caregiver needs to monitor their emotional well-being as well as the well-being as the person that they are giving care to. Usually, giving care to those with dementia is actually more stressful than giving care to those with cancer. When the caregiver is a family member and not a professional, the emotional toll is often even greater. It is important for caregivers to remember that they need to take care of themselves first and
care to the residents suffering from dementia. Banner et al (2009 as cited in Lee J.et al.2012)
Lisa Genova’s grandmother, who was 85 years old, had been showing signs of dementia for years; but she was a smart and independent woman who never complained, and she navigated around her symptoms. Her nine children and their spouses, as well as her grandchildren, passed off her mistakes to normal aging. Then they got the phone call when Lisa’s grandmot...
Treating the patient and family as one, can have improved outcomes, decrease hospital stays, increased patient satisfaction, and improved reimbursements for the hospital. Developing a relationship with not only the patient, but family as well, can pay off in the long run by providing better communication, better quality of care, and trust. The patient and family can be strong advocates for improved performance improvement efforts. Including family in the treatment of the patient treats the “whole” patient through their hospitalization. Involving the family can enhance the patients care.
In most facilities an initiative lifestyle has been organized to give people with dementia a voice in how and where they are cared for (White). This is how things should be everywhere in the world when it comes to people with dementia. People affected by this disease don’t need people to tell them what to do or make decisions for them, they need the freedom to do it themselves so they don’t give up. Although incapacity is common, many persons with dementia are capable of making their own medical and research decisions (Kim, Karlawish, and Caine). At the early stages of dementia, a will needs to be made so medical wishes can be granted. When people are given the freedom of choice, they are much happier, they live longer, and they have a better attitude about the disease they are suffering from. Individuals that get dementia did not get it by choice, but they live through it day by day with strength and the ability to live
In this day and age, it seems as though almost everyone has experience a loved one taken away form a very serious disease known as Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is unbelievably devastating for everyone affected by it. This disease is causing major economical problems such as less occupancy in the nursing homes, and hospitals due to the rising population of elderly men and women being diagnosed with it everyday. Because there is not yet a cure for this disease and the percent of the population being diagnosed keeps rapidly rising, more time and money needs to go towards Alzheimer’s research.
Alzheimer's Disease Introduction to Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease is a progressive, degenerative disease of the brain. It was first described by the German neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915). in 1905. This disease worsens with advancing age, although there is no evidence. that it is caused by the aging process.
Communication plays a major role in preventing and resolving behavior problems and enhancing your patient’s quality of life by allowing them to feel, even when they no longer know or recognize those around them that they are in the midst of people who care about them and are concerned about their physical and emotional well being.
The provision of patient/family-centered care, which assure safety and quality in the service, would have a team work approach as a foundation and underpinning. In a healing process or in the preservation of health intervene several factors, some of them are closely related with the environment. Healthcare providers constitute an important part of that environment, and definitely, communication with patients, families, and among themselves, have a significant impact on it. The environment would influence the patient’s perception of care, and the staff’s level of
. This calls for the need of dementia care to accommodate these patients. The main aim of dementia care is to maintain the personhood in the face of advancing impairment of cognition (Hunter, 2009). This is primarily to help in addressing the plight that people with dementia are facing. Different practitioners or caregivers provide dementia patient care. There are those practitioners who prefer to provide this care at home and those who prefer to provide it in institutions. Each of the cares has its implications on dementia patient.
Leggett, A., Zarit, S., Taylor, A., & Galvin, J. (2010). Stress and burden among caregivers of patients with lewy body dementia. The Gerontologist, 51(1), 76-85.
Dementia can be defined as a clinical syndrome that leads to progressive neurological deterioration. The patient usually presents with impairment in various cognitive abilities such as memory, language, decision making, visual spatial function, orientation and attention. Apart from cognitive impairment, patients also show signs and symptoms of impairment in personality, emotions and social behaviour. Collectively, person experience interference in work, social activities, and relationships as well as inability to perform routine activities such as driving, housekeeping, cooking among others (Kolorev 2014).