Dementia Case Study

Literature Review: The Effectiveness of the use of Sensory Therapy for Elderly Adults Diagnosed with Dementia.

Dementia is the loss of cognition function. This condition is rapidly becoming a huge challenge as well a leading cause of mortality and morbidity of the 21st century, especially in the western world, and the current prediction rates of dementia indicate that it will worsen. The numbers of the individuals affected by the condition is anticipated to rise due to the ever expanding older population. Despite the menace of this condition, the power of music, particularly in singing to jerk or unlock past memories and kick start the grey matter of the brain is an incredible feature of dementia care. Using music seems to reach parts of the damaged patient’s brain in unique ways that other means cannot (Geretsegger et al. (2014). In senior adults with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other mental disorders, music therapy has shown capability of reducing agitated or aggressive behavior, improve cooperation with day-to-day activities such as bathing, improved mood, and reduce symptoms of dementia. Besides, music therapy can reduce the

In this research paper, the effectiveness of music therapy on the cognitive degenerative disorder of dementia will be evaluated. To support the contention that music therapy is effective in treating the symptoms of dementia, research documenting this therapy’s impact on memory, emotions, and behavior will be examined. In order to provide a greater understanding of music therapy and dementia, these terms will be defined. Second, research will be examined to determine music therapy’s impact on the psychological and behavioral issues associated with dementia. Finally, a summary of music therapy’s benefits and an evaluation of its effectiveness in treating individuals afflicted with dementia will be discussed.

In the article “Dementia and the Power of Music Therapy” by Steve Matthews, argues that music therapy has positive effects on dementia, in terms of non-pharmacological treatment, inexpensive in health budgets, and neurocognitive benefits for patients. Matthews starts off the article by describing current tendency of dementia in western nation. He mentions that dementia is one of fast increasing disease in United States, Canada, UK, Europe, and Australia. Additionally, Australian government’s investment for dementia raised up to third highest in national health budgets, in the wake of cardiovascular disease and cancer (Matthews 2015). Following that, there is need for music therapy as an alternative approach in order to treat dementia.

I had done some searching for a topic and found one on CNN news. I chose the topic: Dementia. The definition of dementia is; a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning. It is not a specific disease because it varies a wide range of symptoms that deals with daily thinking or ability to do things with daily living. Alzheimer's is a part of dementia and accounts for 60 - 80 percent of cases. Vascular dementia is the second leading cause of dementia which occurs after a stroke. There are many other conditions of dementia which can be reversible, such as thyroid problems and vitamin deficiencies. People with dementia have a

concept to allow older adults with dementia to live a normal life with the lifestyle they are accustomed. This village

Dementia is caused by loss of brain cells, and shrinkage of brain tissue. This damage leads to increased challenges the brain cells now have to overcome. Neural pathways are the ways our brain cells communicates with one another, so dementia interrupts and negatively affects this process.

“Dementia is not a specific disease. It's an overall term that describes a wide range of symptoms”

Dementia is defined as a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental processes caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes, and impaired reasoning. However, what most of us do not know is that dementia is a general disorder that has a few subcategories. Those categories include Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and frontal-temporal dementia, to name a few. Although statistically dementia is experienced at a similar rate amongst Japanese-Americans and caucasian Americans, their rates in the subtypes are different. Japanese-American’s, most typically Japanese-American men, experience a higher rate in vascular dementia. Vascular dementia is attributed by a lack of blood supply to the brain. Although Japanese-Americans experience vascular dementia at a higher rate than others, the reasoning behind that is still unexplained.

Dementia is a disease becoming more common in today’s world and affecting more people. Dementia is a problem in elderly adults because it impacts all members of a family, it can lead to other medical conditions, and there is no cure.

Dementia is not exactly a disease, but rather a large group of symptoms. These symptoms all relate to the decline of memory and thinking skills due to damage of the brain. Memory loss is often confused with dementia, but other symptoms must be present for a dementia diagnosis. Dementia patients suffer from a combination of cognitive, behavioral and psychological symptoms.

On 12/13/16 at around 8:55 am the aide-Grier Gloria- call the agency to report that her patient- Tomasulo Catherine is missing since yesterday. As per the aide on 12/12/16 at around 4:30-5:00pm the patient became aggressive, stated that she wants to go outside, did not wait for the aide who needed to put on boots and coat, opened the door and leave the house. The patient lives alone in the privet house, has dementia, but was not prone to wandering before this day. The aide stated that by the time she was run out of the house she noticed direction the patient was heading, but when she reached the corner of the nearest streets the patient was disappear. She was looking for her until 6:30pm, return to the patient’s house to see if the patient

She is 94 years old just had a birthday 11/11. She has been here since 08/2014 end-stage dementia initially with a right hip fracture. She has now been in the dementia unit since its opening. In this interval period of time, there has been no major change of her status. I have talked to the nursing staff. They say that she gets a little bit more agitated in the evening when they try to provide care to her but not impeding the CNA's from doing their care requirements. She eats about 50% of her trays. Her weights have been stable. She has about 125 pounds over the last several months. This month has weighed in at 123 pounds. There has been no acute illness or incident which has required acute intervention during this interval period

A review of her medical records indicates that she has a history of dementia that has progressed to her needing assistance with her ADLS. She also suffers from chronic depression, anxiety that is manage with medication and anemia which is stable.

Music is a practice of art that has prospered throughout the past and is consistently perceived as a mechanism for amusement and expression (12). However, not only it is music pleasant to the ear, but also has several positive outcomes on whoever is listening. Music therapy (MT) is employed to treat dementia patients for many years (7,8) and is currently being considered as an intervention to improve cognition in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients. In addition, a qualified music therapist always conducts MT, so that the therapist can control the healing according to different patients based on the mental and rehabilitative methods (10). Several articles have validated that MT can lessen cognitive deterioration particularly in autobiographical