IMPACT OF DEMENTIA ON THE INDIVIDUAL

Cher Riley-Hart has extensive experience in working with Dementia. She has also organised Dementia Aware and Dementia Awareness Days which are both aimed at raising awareness for Dementia.


Cher kindly agreed to be a guest blogger for this piece and to try and answer some of the questions you have all asked me about the impact of Dementia on individuals:

Personality:

The development of personality is influenced by several factors. These include our Culture, Beliefs, Opportunities, Emotions, Memories, Friends, family and other relationships. Additionally genetics which we are all born with give us our own temperament and life experiences whether negative or positive will continue to shape our personality and character throughout our lives. The impact of Dementia, for this reason, will vary from individual to individual.

Those with Dementia may no longer remember who they are or who those around them are. They may only remember themselves as very young, living with Mum or Dad, for example.

2. Biography:

Biography, which links strongly in with personality, refers to what has happened to an individual throughout their life, If a person was adopted or in the care system themselves or had a rich or poorer life. All of this too has to be understood about a person, in order to provide them with a person- centered approach. The history of a person’s life (their biography), will have an impact on their experience of Dementia.

A person with Dementia may suddenly be unable to remember important facts about their lives. They might not remember being married, that they went on to lead very successful lifestyles, that they had children and so on. Their whole world suddenly stops from being on-going to going back in time. Dementia can completely stop them from remembering what and who they were.

 

3. Health.

 

The fact that someone has a Form of Dementia means that already their health is jeopardised. However, this can also lead to other health issues. A person may simply forget that they have to take certain drugs to keep their heart or blood pressure stable and things like this can have further and a more serious impact on their health.

Health, which also includes a person’s physical and sensory health, will have a huge impact on their experience of Dementia. Understanding a person’s health needs will be beneficial if not essential for a number of reasons.

For example, a number of unrelated conditions can cause confusion. Things like metabolic disorders which cause chemical reactions in your body and upset the process of metabolism. These include diabetes, iron deficiencies or side effects from medication.

Likewise a person suffering from a UTI, or who is in pain may not be able to say exactly that they have a pain and where it is.

Sensory functions if they are impaired such as sight, or not working efficiently like sense of smell or hearing can all add to confusion which is then doubled because of the Dementia that a person is also suffering from. There are also additional risk factors to these conditions. Someone who has a UTI or a temporary hearing loss due to ear infection, will be at risk of falling and therefore the persons mobility will be affected. Or they can become disorientated when they are in unfamiliar situations.

 

4. Neurological impairment.

 

Neurological Impairment or NI is the actual damage to the brain itself. This could be because of chemical imbalances, deficits or some advancing disease. The impairment or damage will vary from one person to another and also may be in different parts of the brain where the disease or impairment is.

With so many different forms of Dementia, the rate at which the dementia advances will vary from one person to another. It is important to understand what type of Dementia a person has, to understand N.I.

 People with dementia have significantly impaired intellectual functioning that interferes with normal activities and relationships.

 

5. Social Psychology

S.P. refers to the person’s environment and whether the people within it can help them or not. It means and refers to what is happening in a person’s life and whether they have a support network of family and friends around them who are able to enable them and support them fully. Care workers and care settings all play an important part in influencing a person S.P.

A person with Dementia will have altered feelings and thoughts due to the confusion that is caused by the disease. They will struggle to make sense of the world around them and their personal relationships may become strained if there are behaviour changes.

Find more resources for nvq and Diploma in Health and Social Care on my website Baffled by NVQ 

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