Week 12

Question 1

what percentage of adults over 60 suffer from mental health disorders?

Answer 1

15%

Question 2

What are the common mental health issues for older people?

Answer 2

• illness
• grief and loss
• financial stress
• changing living arrangements
• increasing social isolation

Question 3

how are suicide rates changing in older generations?

Answer 3

increaseing, especially in men over 85

Question 4

what percentage of older ppl experiecne depression and anxiety?

Answer 4

10 - 15% - Depression (over 50% for people in aged care)

10% - anxiety

Question 5

What are risk factors for old people and mental health?

Answer 5

• health issues
• chronic pain
  side effects from meds
• losses
• social isolation
• significant change in living arrangments
• admission to hospital
• anniversaries

Question 6

What are some signs and symptoms of depression in older populations?

Answer 6

An older person may be depressed if, for more than two
weeks, he or she has felt sad, down or miserable most of
the time or has lost interest or pleasure in most of his or
her usual activities, and has also experienced several of thesigns and symptoms across at least three of the categories below:

• behaviours
• slowing down or restleness
• neglect of self care
• withdrawing from family and friends
• decline in day to day function
• confused worried and agitated
• inability to find pleasure
• unmotivated
  behaving out of character

Question 7

What specific symptoms of mental illness in elderly?

Answer 7

Feelings:

• sleeping more
• memory problems
• loss of apetitie
• sadness/irritability
• worthless
• physical symptoms

Thoughts:
- indecisiveness
- low self esteem
persistent suicidal thoughts
- negative comments

Question 8

What is the rate of suicide in older people?

Answer 8

3x more in men over 85

higher than general population

Question 9

What is the link between depression and dementia?

Answer 9

depression affects 1 in 5 people with dementia

when they occur at the same time, it’s hard to determine the diagnosis

Question 10

What are the brain changes with aging?

Answer 10

structural, chemical and functional changes

• cell loss, synapse loss, brain atrophy
• loss of neural circuits
• cortical thinning
• decreased neurotransmitters
• decreased functional abilities
• sensory and motor impairments

Question 11

What is dementia?

Answer 11

describes a syndrome with over 100 different diseases that exhibit impaired brain function

Alzheimers (50-75%)
Vascular dementia (20-30%)

progressive and irreversible neuro-degeneration

Question 12

What are the main causes of dementia?

Answer 12

alzheimers disease
cerebrovascular disease
lewy body disease
fronto-lobal dementia

Question 13

How do you diagnose dementia?

Answer 13

if 2 or more cognitive functions are significantly impaired.

Hallmarked by the inability to carry out everyday activities as a consequence of diminished cognitive ability.

Question 14

What is alzheimers disease?

Answer 14

affects 1 in 10 and accounts for 75% of dementia cases

• Plaques impair comms between nerve cells

Question 15

What is lewy body disease?

Answer 15

caused by degeneration and death of nerve cells in the brain

• identified by abnormal spherical structures inside nerve cells
• Dificult to distinguish from parkinsons

Question 16

What are the symptoms of lewy disease?

Answer 16

• dificulty concentrating and attention
• extreme confusion
• difficulties judging distanced, often resulting in falls
• visual hallucinations

Question 17

what is the brakdown of childhood abuse in australia?

Answer 17

Primary - Emotional abuse - 48%
Followed by Neglect (24%)
Physical abuse (16%)
Sexual abuse (12%)

Question 18

What are the types of childhood abuse?

Answer 18

• physical
• emotional
• sexual
• neglect

Question 19

What are signs of emotional abuse in children?

Answer 19

• changes in behaviour
• lying and stealing
• destructive or violent behaviour
• rocking the body or sucking things
• being withdrawn or depressed
• agressive and constantly seeking attention

Question 20

what are the red flags for paramedics when called to a child injury?

IMPORTANT!!!!

Answer 20

• story keeps changing
• brusiing and injury do not fit the mechanisms of story
• bruising on both sides of limb
• fractures of long bones
• clenliness and general appearance of child
• brusing in various stages of healing
• presence of various injuries in various stages of healing
• facial injuries in infants and pre-school children
• injuries inconsistent with childs age
• a lot of bruises in the same area of body
• bruises in shape of object

Question 21

What are some red flags for paramedics when dealing with adults who may have abuse a child?

Answer 21

• different story to child
• says child has a lot of accidents
• cannot control anger and frustration
• talks about problems dealing with child
• talks about child as bad, different or the cause of problems
• doesn’t go to doctor right away

Question 22

define elder abuse?

Answer 22

a single, or repeated act, oir lack of appropriate action, occuring within any relationship where there is an expectation of trust which causes harm or distress to an older person.

Question 23

What are some examples of elder abuse?

Answer 23

Physical abuse
sexual abuse
psychological abuse
financial
neglect

Question 24

What are some behaviours displayed by abused elders?

Answer 24

• afraid of many/one person
• easily upset
• depressed or withdrawn
• lack of interest
• changing sleep patterns
• changing eating habits
• thoughts of suicide
• attacks of shaking, trembling
• rigid posture
• presenting as helpless

Question 25

what is the prevalence of elder abuse?

Answer 25

4.6% in aust

Question 26

What are the risk factors for elder abuse?

Answer 26

• carer stress
• dependency
• family conflict
• isolation
• psychological problems
• addictive behaviours