COPING WITH ALZHEIMER DISEASE: A QUALITATIVE STUDY 1 Introduction Many countries globally are faced with unprecedented demographic changes from high mortality and fertility to low mortality and fertility, giving rise to an ageing population. Population ageing is profound and enduring, and has major consequences and implications for all facets of human life. With a larger proportion of older people, one of the major concerns is health care. The health of older persons generally declines with age and some illness are more likely to be associated with older people. One of such illness is dementia. As the life expectancies of the general population have dramatically increased since the turn of the century, more and more people are at risk of developing dementia (National Institute of Aging, 2000). Dementia is affecting an increasing number of people every year. According to Ferri et al. (2006), 4.6 million people throughout the world are diagnosed with dementia every year, and the number of people in Europe suffering from dementia will increase to 13 million in 2040; and Wimo et al. (2003) estimates that approximately 63 million worldwide will suffer from this illness by 2030. This has crucial implications since it is an illness that is associated with long-term care (LTC). However, while LTC is an important consideration, the quality of life and how people with dementia cope with the illness are also of much concern, but less dealt into. Dementia can undermine a person’s self-worth and esteem, and affects most aspects of daily living (Preston, Marshall, & Bucks, 2007) affecting one’s quality of life (QOL). Traditionally, the medical model dominated research on dementia, and studies on the lived experiences of people with dement... ... middle of paper ... ...35-341. SABAT, S. R. 2002. Epistemological Issues in the Study of Insight in People with Alzheimer’s Disease. Dementia, 1, 279-293. STEEMAN, E., DE CASTERLÉ, B. D., GODDERIS, J. & GRYPDONCK, M. 2006. Living with early-stage dementia: a review of qualitative studies. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 54, 722-738. SUGARMAN, J., CAIN, C., WALLACE, R. & WELSH-BOHMER, K. A. 2001. How Proxies Make Decisions about Research for Patients with Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 49, 1110-1119. WALD, D. S. 2004. Bureaucracy of ethics applications. WHO. 1993. The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders: Diagnostic criteria for research. In: WHO (ed.). Geneva: World Health Organisation. WIMO, A., WINBLAD, B., AGUERO-TORRES, H. & VON STRAUSS, E. 2003. The magnitude of dementia occurrence in the world. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord, 17, 63-7.
Dementia is common among a large population of elderly people. The disease affects not only the individual diagnosed, but also the caregivers that work towards making their life comfortable in the end. Understanding and learning about the disease is crucial in helping those that experience or live with someone who has dementia. The services and support that are currently in affect for elderly people with dementia and the caregivers is poor, and ineffective because of the lack of research and information on the topic.
Lisa Genova, the author of Still Alice, a heartbreaking book about a 50-year-old woman's sudden diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is a member of the Dementia Advocacy, Support Network International and Dementia USA and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. Genova's work with Alzheimer's patients has given her an understanding of the disorder and its affect not only on the patient, but on their friends and family as well (Simon and Schuster, n.d.).
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
Alzheimer’s disease is a serious disease which causes people to behave in a challenging way for their family and caregivers to manage. These behaviours are caused by damage to the brain that leads to psychological and functional impairment. Due to this impairment the people with AD are often neglected and labelled by the society. Family caregivers play a massive role in the care of their loved ones with AD. Patients and family caregivers often experience stress in dealing with all the obstacles that Alzheimer’s disease put them through.
Worldwide, 35.6 million people have dementia and there are 7.7 million new cases every year (WHO 2012). There are ma...
In the field of Psychology you can find an abundance of mental disorders that can have an affect on people all throughout the world. Out of all the mental disorders that can be found around the world, some of them are more well-known and more widespread than others. The following disorders could be described as being well-known and widespread disorders: depression, bi-polar disorder, Alzheimer's, and OCD, which could also be called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. All of these mental disorders can be very dangerous and possibly deadly if people don't receive the proper care in order to be able to contain these disorders. Out of these very dangerous and possibly deadly disorders, I believe that Alzheimer's is the most interesting disorder. I think that Alzheimer's is the most interesting disorder, because I think we have the least about of knowledge of the Alzheimer's disorder. As a society we still to this day don't have a cure that totally stops this disorder.
The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders: Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines. Geneva: World Health Organization, 1992. Print.
Caring for a person suffering dementia often comes with a myriad of deleterious effects on mental health including, but not limited to stress and depression at higher levels than non-carers, decreased social activity, disruption of sleep, poor physical health, decreased social activities and feelings of guilt, sadness, stigma, frustration, anger, anxiety, helplessness and isolation (------). Furthermore, these challenges are compounded with with the grief that accompanies watching a loved one progress into cognitive decline leaving them distant and estranged, and eventually dying
“Difficult, depressing, and tragic” are a few of the descriptions generally associated with illness. Those who suffer from dementia, especially, undergo a realm of these characterizations. With this adversity in mind, most people generate a basic understanding based on education rather than personal experience. It is this preconception that can prevent us from gaining a true insight of one’s reality.
Dementia is a disorder which results in loss of thinking, remembering, and reasoning to the extent where behavioral abilities interfere with a person’s daily life and activities. It is a set of symptoms affecting the brain which causes memory loss, starts slowly and increases with loss of the ability to function. In the beginning stages of dementia, a person can still function normally, but as the disorder progresses the activities such as driving, cooking, ironing or boiling a kettle of water becomes difficult, risky and should be monitored. The ability to focus and communicate is so confusing as to where they are, where they are going and sometimes starts wandering and get lost. It was so heartbreaking for me when my mom was diagnosed with
It is an inevitable fact that the twenty-first century will be impacted by the largest geriatric population of any century. In 2015, the World Health Organization announced that currently 47.5 million people on earth are living with dementia and approximately 7.7 new cases are surfacing every year (WHO, 2015). The U.S.public health system is at a point where it will have to focus its efforts on an entirely different approach to accommodate the growing elderly population that live with dementia. “Dementia is a neurocognitive disorder caused by various brain illnesses that affect perception, cognition and motor function” (Ridder & Gummesen, 2015). Dementia directly affects quality of life (QOL) of the elderly, and it can impair “participation,
Dementia is referred to as a condition in which an individual’s everyday life is so fragmented and/or ripped away from reality that he or she loses the ability to reason and think clearly (Berk, 2014). According to Prince et al., 2013, dementia strikes 13% of adults over the age of 65 in the United States and other Western nations (as cited in Berk, 2014). Additionally, dementia causes an individual to experience persistent memory lapses and can be caused by many different reasons like the development of Alzheimer’s disease, stress, depression, PTSD, etc. With this in mind, Dasha Kipers’ article, “Hope Is the Enemy”, goes in depth about what it is like for an individual who suffers from dementia. Furthermore, the article begins in 2010 when Dasha moved into an apartment with a 98-year-old man named Mr. Schecter, who was a Holocaust survivor dealing with the beginning stages of dementia. As Dasha and Mr. Schecters relationship developed, Dasha began to realize Mr. Schecters behavior: putting laundry detergent in the oven, forgetting which floor he lived on, and Mr. Schecters repetitiveness. Thus, in the end of Dasha’s article, Dasha explains that dementia affects not only the victims, but the caregivers as well by making their lives fragmented, skewed, and redundant (Kiper, 2015). For that reason, dementia is seen as being a condition in which everyone involved in
The age groups included those who were sixty-five to seventy-four, seventy-five to eight-four, and eighty-five and beyond. There was an estimate of 4.5 million individuals affected with Alzheimer’s Disease in the year 2000. Of those 4.5 million people, seven percent of them were from the sixty-five to seventy-four age group, fifty-three percent were from the seventy-five to eight-four age group, and forty percent were from the eighty–five and beyond. The data also showed an estimate of substantial increase in people with Alzheimer’s Disease by 2050. There will be a three-fold increase in the widespread of the disease reaching 13.2 affected people by the year 2050. There is definite uncertainty of these estimates because the estimates were derived from the middle-series US Census Bureau estimates of population
In a person's typical aging process, they will encounter many different changes in their lives. Some changes might result in better results than others, however not everyone will have the same effects. Authors of Gerontology for the healthcare professional, Robnett and Chop state, “We need to consider whether the negative physical and cognitive changes that occur in older people result from the aging process or from the accumulation of poor lifestyle choices”. Robertson & Chop, 104. For some, the aging process involves cognitive changes in which disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s can present themselves early on.
What if one day you were unable to recall what you had previously experienced? Surrounded by people who refer to you by a name that has no meaning to you, confused by the gibberish spoken by others. How would you cope with not knowing what this so called “family” of yours is? [1] According to the World Health Organization this is a reality to roughly 47 million people. [1] Dementia is a grouping of disease in which there is a deterioration in memory, thinking, behaviour and the ability to perform everyday activities. Symptoms range from memory loss, word finding difficulties and impaired judgement. Dementia doesn’t only affect the person diagnosed with it negatively, but caregivers as well. It is a disease which needs proper funds and research to help improve the life of those diagnosed with it.