Alzheimer's Australi Reflective Report

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly, accounting for 65–70% of all cases (Jellinger, Janetzky, Attems, & Kienzl, 2008). The other dementias are of the Parkinson 's group, the fronto-temporal group and the vascular group. The total worldwide yearly costs for the treatment and care of patients suffering from dementia are estimated to be around 250 billion US dollars. The lifetime risk for AD between the ages of 65 and 100 is 33% for men and 45% for women with an annual increase of 1–2% in the seventh decade to almost 60% in the 10th decade with doubling every 5 years (Jellinger et al., 2008). AD is incurable, and thus represents a major public health problem. AD represents a challenge to humanity due to its relatively recent discovery, progressive nature of the illness, and complex diagnosis.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a form of degenerative, fatal dementia, is characterized by progressive cognitive decline. While AD is the most common form of dementia, its prevalence has only recently been recognized. When Alois Alzheimer first described the sequence of changes in 1907, physicians believed the disease to be an extremely rare, mid-life condition. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that the same types of changes were shown to occur in both late- and early-onset forms (Cavanaugh et.al. 2008). As such, almost all knowledge of AD has been learned within the past several decades, with new discoveries being reported almost daily. It is now estimated that Alzheimer’s accounts for as many as 60% of all dementias and affects more than 500,000

The practical experience of this project enhanced my knowledge in community nursing and mental health nursing practice. The discussion and negotiation with the staff members throughout the project offered me the insights into analysing and addressing the concerns. I appreciated the support and feedback on the activity resource portfolio, which has motivated me and enriched my learning experience. Meanwhile, being able to produce a good project means the committee to time and to employ best practice. It is very time consuming to search for all the possible non-pharmacological intervention options that are suitable for the community. But this has increased my knowledge on dementia care therapy. In addition, working with carers, nurses, lifestyle support workers and allied health professionals offered me the opportunities to assess the problems and community strengths from different perspectives, which has helped me to understand and think outside of the box when considering the

Alzheimer’s Disease is a disease of the future. With the growing aged population, this disease, which affects primarily the elderly, will become of increasing relevance to the medical profession. Also, the high frequency of Alzheimer’s, and the high cost in labor, money, and material of caring for its victims shall put considerable burden on the society as a whole. Here, however, these issues are not going to be debated. Instead the pathology of Alzheimer’s will be reviewed to the extent it is known today.

Alzheimer’s Disease is an irreversible, genetically linked illness. This disease was chosen for the topic of this essay under the consideration that in many families the illness can be incredibly tragic, passing down for generations without mercy. It is not rare to encounter families in which each member is afflicted with a form, mild or severe, of Alzheimer’s. The disease is a progressive brain disease which comes in two separate types: Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease and Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. These will be discussed in full later on in the paper.

Alzheimer’s disease is a complex illness that affects the brain tissue directly and undergoes gradual memory and behavioral changes which makes it difficult to diagnose. It is known to be the most common form of dementia and is irreversible. Over four million older Americans have Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to triple in the next twenty years as more people live into their eighties and nineties. (Johnson, 1989). There is still no cure for Alzheimer’s but throughout the past few years a lot of progress has been made.

Dementia is a term used to describe symptoms associated with decline in memory or other

In chapter 15 I found the part on Alzheimer’s disease very informative and interesting. Alzheimer’s and dementia are diseases that I find great interest in. My paternal grandfather was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease when he was just over the age of 60. He proceeded to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s induced dementia, and then he later passed away from the disease. My maternal grandfather suffered from a severe stroke about 4 years ago, and is now suffering from stroke induced dementia. Seeing anyone who is suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia of some sort is very sad. I work in an assisted living facility and we have a specialized facility of people who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia. Working with these people on a daily basis

Great post Mariah! Your post was very clear on the diagnostic criteria for both. As per our instructions, I want to address the need for autonomy with a client who has Alzheimer’s disease in relation to their safety as well as others.

In this Chapter, we discussed the six pillars of Alzheimer’s prevention. Throughout the week, the great leader has built these “pillars” to help us understand and comprehend the greatness of preventing Alzheimer’s in the distant future.

Direct costs are medical and social support costs that include diagnosis, home care, and nursing home care. Most formal health care comes from direct-care workers who include nurse aides, personal aides, and home health aides. They assist with personal care, housekeeping, and food preparation (Alzheimer’s Association, 2011).

I felt that I understood the assignment as in my work placement, there was a client with Alzheimer’s. I could observe what had to be done to enhance the client’s quality of life and what equipment was used to transfer the client and put it into my assignment. Before this, I had never come in contact with anyone with Alzheimer’s, so it made it easier for me to write about. I also enjoyed researching the topic in more depth using different websites and making sure I referenced correctly throughout my assignment. It is also vital to have patience with someone who has Alzheimer’s as they tend to repeat themselves and people might start to lose patience with the client.

This paper explores various elements and issues related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Topics briefly detailed include etiology, symptomology, diagnosis, neuroanatomy, neurotransmitter systems involved and treatments that focus on neurotransmitters. Emphasis is placed on such topics as cognitive decline and dementia; neurological change; and changes to neurotransmitters and synapses. Details concerning diagnosis and treatment are brief, but do elaborate somewhat on present studies into addressing specific changes in the brain through pharmacological approaches, cognitive therapies and physical exercise. At present, there are limited resources available for treatment of AD. While research continues to seek out more effective therapies, it appears that most only have little to moderate efficacy on this elusive disease.

According to the National Institute on Aging’s recently revised criteria for dementia, impaired language functions, including difficulties in speaking, reading and writing are among the core clinical criteria of Alzheimer’s disease (AD; McKhann et al. 2011). During the early/mild clinical stage of AD, individuals exhibit subtle word finding problems, and difficulty using and understanding complex language forms such as idioms, figurative forms, metaphors and similes, and sarcasm (Bayles 1982, Bayles et al. 1992, Kempler et al. 1988). In the middle/moderate clinical stage of AD, individuals demonstrate pronounced word-finding problems to express feelings/intent or to express unmet needs such as their spoken, written and gestural outputs are

I don’t support ASHA recommendation for adolescents to refute testing for adult onset conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. In Alzheimer's case specifically, recognition of alleles that severely increase chances for its onset is performed through a blood test. This information can help adolescents who tested positive prepare emotionally, psychologically and medically for the disease ahead of time. It can help them decide how they want to live the rest of their lives before the disease sets in and still lead content lives. For adolescents who test negative for these alleles, it can relieve great stress from their lives, not having to worry about the disease setting in during adulthood; this is especially beneficial to those who have had alzheimer's in their genetic history.