Ask me about best practices in dementia care

2. DEMOGRAPHICS
•Currently
there are approximately 5.3 million
people in America diagnosed with Alzheimer‟s
dementia.
•That translates into 14% of America‟s over the
age of 71, and over 50% of America‟s over the
age of 85.
•The aging process is a complex process unique
to every individual.

3. WHAT INFLUENCES HOW PEOPLE AGE?
•Heredity
•Lifestyle/activity level
•Culture
•Physical disease
•Environmental factors
•Social support network
•Mental and emotional condition

4. CHANGES LINKED TO AGING PROCESS
•Vision loss
•Hearing loss
•Inability to taste certain flavors
•Sensitivity to temperature
•Decline in pain threshold
•Some loss in coordination/balance
•Loss of skin elasticity and changes in skin pigmentation
•Hair loss and pigment change

5. PROBLEMS ATTRIBUTED TO MEMORY DIFFICULTIES
•Fatique
•Grief
•Depression
•Medication
•Alcohol
•Vision and hearing loss
•Diet
•illness/infections

6. DEMENTIA
•Dementia
is a broad term used to describe loss of
memory, intellect, social skills and ordinary
emotional responses. It is caused by
deterioration in several areas of the brain.
•The person with dementia may find it increasingly
difficult to perform previously familiar tasks,
such as remembering, self care, numeracy
skills and even speaking.

7. DEMENTIA
•The
most common form of dementia is
Alzheimer‟s Disease.
•There is no known cause to Alzheimer‟s disease,
and although it is not part of aging, the most
significant risk factor is age.
•Stroke or other conditions that affect brain
function can cause dementia.

8. WHO GETS DEMENTIA?
•The
majority of people with dementia are older
people, though not every person will develop
dementia in old age. About one in four people
over the age of 85 may have dementia.

9. WHAT ARE THE EARLY SYMPTOMS?
•Difficulties
in remembering, particularily recent
events.
•Difficulties with performing familiar tasks.
•Confusion about time and place.
•An inability to express your thoughts.
•Problems understanding what others are saying.
•Problems misplacing things.
•A loss of motivation.

10. GLOBAL COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT
•In
addition to memory impairment, at least one of
the following:
•Personality
•Abstract Thinking
•Judgment
•Language use
•Ability to perform complex physical tasks
•Ability to recognize objects or people.

11. SOME CAUSES OF DEMENTIA
•Alzheimer‟s
Disease
•Parkinson‟s Disease
•Vascular Dementia
•Pick‟s Disease
•Lewy Body Dementia
•Alcohol Dementia

12. REVERSIBLE DEMENTIA
•Caused
by drugs, depressions, infections, brain
tumors, head injury, etc.
•Goes away or gets better with treatment.

13. IRREVERSIBLE DEMENTIA
•Get
progressively worse
•Cannot be cured
•Some examples are Alzheimer‟s Disease,
Vascular Dementia, Lewy Body Disease,
Parkinson‟s Disease

14. ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
•Most
common form of Dementia.
•A progressive, degenerative disease that causes
changes in brain tissue resulting in impaired
memory, thinking and behavior.
•No known cause or cure.

16. CHANGES IN THE BRAIN
•Loss
of brain cells.
•Shrinking of brain size
•”Plaques” and “Tangles” develop in nerve cells of the
brain.
•Nerve fibers separate and become tangled
•Abnormal protein deposits
•Production of chemical messengers
(neurotransmitters) is reduced
•Cells eventually die.

19. FRONTAL LOBE
•Personality
•Reasoning/judgment
•Movement
•Speech
•Concentration/attention span
•Alertness
•safety

20. PARIETAL-LOBE
•Sensory-perceptual
areas
•Senses (temperature, touch, pain, space)
•Language (Letters-words-thoughts)

21. OCCIPITAL LOBE
•Vision
•Interprets information from eyes for orientation,
position, movement

22. TEMPORAL LOBE
•Hearing,
memory, language
•Organizes basic sounds of language into
meaningful communication‟
•Ability to draw

23. HIPPOCAMPUS
•Memory
and learning („tape recorder)
•Process short-term memory
•Puts new memories into storage

24. ALZHEIMER’S SYMPTOMS
•Early:
May lose track of time
•Later, more pronounced disorientation may
include places and people
•Sense of time becomes distorted (tries to leave
upon arrival, forgets eating)
•Mood and personality changes
•Depression is common

25. WHAT’S HAPPENING TO MOM
•Has
difficulty finding the right words to express
self
•May try to cover with long-winded descriptions
that don‟t make sense
•May become angry and turn the focus on
someone or something else or refuse to
discuss.
•May use words that sound similar or are related
to desired word (wrong/ring or read/book)

26. THE DIAGNOSIS OF DEMENTIA
●Currently, there is no diagnostic test that can detect if a person has a
Alzheimer‟s disease. However, new diagnostic tools and criteria make it
possible for physicians to make clinical diagnosis of an Alzheimer‟s
with an accuracy of 85-90%.
●Evaluations commonly performed during diagnosis include:

27. DIAGNOSIS OF DEMENTIA
●Medical
History
●Mental Status Examination
●Physical Examination
●Neurological Examination
●Laboratory Tests

28. TREATMENT OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
●There is no cure for Alzheimer‟s disease
●Maintaining good general health is important, because other conditions
can make the symptoms of the disease worse.
●Medications
●Aricept
●Exelon
●Razadyne
●Namenda