Spiritual Care Flashcards
Who might be a carer for a person with dementia?
It could be anyone, but often it is the spouse, parent, or child of the person with dementia.
Why is caring for someone with dementia so difficult?
It is progressive and debilitating, so it is emotionally and physically very trying for someone to care for someone they love with dementia. They might not seek help early enough and then keep putting it off because of increasing demand of care on time.
What aspect of dementia might it be hardest for carers to manage?
The psychiatric and behavioural problems as it can include aggression, changes in personality and behaviour, and emotional changes.
What ADLs might a carer have to help a person with dementia with?
Any of them, starting with more complex and progressing to easier ADLs e.g. shopping, dressing, eating.
What legal responsibility might a carer of a person with dementia have?
Power of attorney, responsibility to report diagnosis to DVLA
Why does short term memory go before long term memory in dementia?
They are stored in different parts of the brain. The part that atrophies in dementia, the hippocampus, is responsible for processing short term memory into long term memory, but storage of long term memory occus throughout the brain.
What is often the first sign of dementia that the patient or their carer reports?
Losing things - person puts something down then forgets where
Why is dementia harder to identify in intelligent people?
They develop techniques to overcome impairment of memory and can cover up deficits more convincingly.
What techniques might intelligent people with earl dementia develop to compensate for poor memory?
List making, alarms and reminders, increased use of diaries etc, avoid new places and people, filling gaps in stories with plausible stories.
Why is compensation for dementia so worrying to a carer?
When compensation is no longer adequate, the apparent decline in memory is much greater than the true rate, which is scarier to a carer than slow progressive decline as it is more noticable.
For a patient with a few co-morbidities, how might cognitive decline present?
Difficulty taking medications - may be chaotic and struggling, or accidental overdose, or non-compliance with therapy.
Why might living with a person with dementia be quite dangerous?
They may forget about house security e.g. not lock dorrs, may turn on gas and forget to light it, cigarettes might be lit and forgotten about.
What lifestyle factor may aggravate the features of dementia?
Alcohol consumption
How might a person with dementia hurt a carer?
Physically - may become physically violent. Emotionally - may be rude and aggressive. Financially - may accidentally spend lots of money or open themselves and others up to financial abuse.
What tasks might a person with dementia be unable to perform to signal to carers that the dementia is becoming terminal?
Inability to wash and dress, especially doing buttons and zips, aggression increases, increasing number of falls, inability to feed themselves.
