Prior to starting the My Sage process, the main interactions that I have had with elders have been with my grandparents. When thinking about it, I still have had limited interactions with elders as of recently because I have not been talking to my grandparents as often as I should. Through taking this course, I have kept my grandparents in the back of my mind as learning the different aspects of things that elders encounter on a daily basis. The readings, guest speakers, class discussions, and lectures have helped me to accumulate the appropriate knowledge that is needed when working with elders as a social worker. The field of gerontology and working with elders is booming in the social work profession. More people are living longer …show more content…
This is a topic that My Sage and I were able to talk about. We talked about the reasons why elders with cognitive distortions would have a hard time with this specific therapy and looked at the symptoms of dementia together to look at their memory, which we found evidence from in the book (McInnis-Dittrich, 2014). Dementia is a biological dysfunction that affects cognitive and intellectual functioning, and affects five to ten percent of older adults. It is also an umbrella term for Alzheimer’s, which is also a cognitive dysfunction that gradually affects the brain (McInnis-Dittrich, 2014). We also talked a lot about dementia through class discussion and learning through the experiences that my classmates have had and we concluded that the book was right when saying that people with that distortion would not have an effective time with that specific type of therapy.
An interesting and intriguing lecture that we had from Dr. Agarwal also broke down the aspects of delirium, dementia, and Alzheimer’s and how they affect one another. Throughout her lecture, I learned that it is important for not just social workers, but doctors and all health care professionals to be aware of the medications that the elders are on that could cause delirium. Sometimes pills are giving to the elders to treat a condition that they have without recognizing the mental consequences that they may cause. She also informed us that most doctors are focused on the here and now and
Patient living in the nursing homes with diagnosis of dementia experience Disruptive behavior. According to Burton et al. (2015) more than 44 million people have dementia. Dementia affects memory, thinking and social abilities. These symptoms severely interfere with daily functioning of the patient. Approximately 90% of dementia patients demonstrate psychological and behavioral symptoms such as anxiety, agitation, depression, hallucination, delusion, and aggression (Chen et al., 2014). Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) are a varied group of non-cognitive symptoms affecting demented patients. These symptoms are delusion, hallucination, agitation, anxiety, euphoria, disinhibition, night-time behavioral disturbances
I have always admired the senior citizens who are wondering how they have passed such long journeys of their lives. They not only have accomplished achievements, but also have done memorable works that deserve admiration, respect, and priority in today’s society. These old people may look incompetent and unexciting in somebody’s eyes and thoughts, but not everyone realizes that they are the people with greatest knowledge and experiences beyond their masters of life. From my own experience, whenever I see an old mister or mistress looking for help or in need of help, I can never ignore him or
The mental health of individuals in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) community is something that is a serious problem. For most of the history of the United States and many different parts of the world LGBT people faced much persecution and in some cases even death. This constant fear of discovery and the pressure that one feels on oneself when “in the closet” can lead to major mental distress. Research has shown that people who identify as LGBT are twice as likely to develop lifetime mood and anxiety disorders (Bostwick 468). This is extremely noticeable the past couple years in the suicides of bullied teens on the basis of sexual identity and expression. The stigma on simply being perceived as LGBT is strong enough to
The term ‘dementia’ is used to describe a syndrome associated with an ongoing decline of the brain and its abilities. This includes problems with memory loss, thinking speed, mental agility, language, understanding, and judgment. People with dementia can become apathetic or uninterested in their usual activities, and have problems controlling their emotion. They also fine social situation challenging, lose interest in socialising and aspect of their personality may change. The majority of people who are diagnosed with dementia have either Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia, or a combination of the two. (Source 1) As the disease progresses, the person experiencing dementia becomes more vulnerable and their needs often complex; which requires appropriate care and management (Kitwood, 1997).this leads me to the next distinctive feature of patients with dementia.
Dementia is a group of symptoms affecting memory, thinking and social abilities enough to interfere with daily functioning. Dementia can also make changes in memory. Delirium is a serious disturbance in mental abilities that results in confused thinking and reduced awareness of your environment. Delirium usually starts rapidly with abrupt confusion, emerging over days or weeks and represents a sudden change from the person’s previous course of Dementia.
As people get old a few of them will experience changes in cognition with age related capacity rather than intellectual capacity. There are some people who get both disparities of mentally and physically impaired that will led into depression due to aging process of their body. Even though, the forgetfulness is a common among older adults, we as healthcare providers must evaluate altered mental status of the patients. “The evaluation and management of altered mental status are broad and require careful history and physical examination to eliminate life-threatening situations”(Patti & Dulebohn, 2017). Therefore, it is very important to recognize the importance of difference between normal age-related symptoms and developing new health problems that can arise in this specific population. As elders get older their memory lapses it frustrating to them leading them to be more worried about changes in their memory. Nurses have a unique capability to promote a cognitive health and determine the possibilities of potential cases of the impairment in elders. The movie “On Golden Pond” Mr. Norman was a perfect example and showed that his symptoms were interfering with his everyday live when he almost burns down the house with fire, calling Bill by his daughter’s name Chelsea and getting lost in on the lake. Even though, Mr. Norman had heart and dementia problems his wife never discouraged him to do what he liked such as
Dementia is an extremely common disease among the elderly, with 4 million Americans currently suffering from the Alzheimer’s type alone. Figures show that 3% of people between the ages of 65-74 suffer from the disease, rapidly increasing to 19% for the 75-84 age bracket, and as high as 47% for the over 85s. Therefore, it is easy to see why Dementia is such a large part of many people’s lives, whether they are suffering from the condition themselves, or have an elderly relative who requires full time care just to undertake simple day to day tasks. The disease can be extremely traumatic for the patient and their families, as the person, who may have been extremely lively and bright throughout their
After spending an afternoon interviewing my elderly father-in-law, I gained insight into how he perceives the aging process and the impact on the quality of his life. First, and foremost he viewed aging in a very positive and healthy manner. He believes that a positive attitude assists in accepting physical and psychosocial changes and enjoyed the fact that he and his wife are both physically fit and cognitively alert. He felt confident that advances made in health care and the quality of their lives would continue to be empowering. He enjoys the benefits of being a senior citizen including discounted travel, free education, and other incentives marketed towards seniors. He expressed a sense of well-being with respect to the numerous
Dr. William E. Reichman is a specialized physician having almost 30 years of experience in the care of patients suffering with Alzheimer’s disease and related causes of Dementia. As well as he has done a research focused on Alzheimer’s drug development and the effectiveness of dementia care approaches in institutionalized settings. Since 2008, He has been the President and CEO of Bay crest Health Sciences in Toronto, and a global leader in seniors’ residential living, health care, neuroscience research, and education. He is currently a Professor of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto.
The incidence of dementia increases as the general population ages and one source estimates approximately two billion individuals being affected by the year 2050 (Vasionyte & Madison, 2013). The nature of dementia results in cognitive decline that may lead to inappropriate behaviors, such as aggression, agitation, mood disorders, and eating problems, which can be a severe impairment when treating these patients
Delirium, Depression, and Dementia are some of the most common psychological diagnoses in the elderly today. The three D’s are difficult to differentiate between in older adults because they overlap with each other and can all exist in the same patient at once. Delirium, Dementia, and Depression all affect the elderly’s quality of life and often increase the risks for one another (Downing, Caprio & Lyness, 2013). For the purpose of this paper I will be focusing primarily on the diagnosis of Dementia, the prevention, and nursing measures associated with it, but first I would like to differentiate between Delirium and Depression because Dementia is often associated with the two in the older adult population.
Delirium is also different from Alzheimer’s disease that in delirium confusion fluctuates over the day dramatically. Thinking and conversation can be disorganized at any time, in delirium patient may become hyper alert or drowsiness state can be occurred.
Dementia is a progressive process, with the symptoms and decline in function often worsening, sometimes rapidly, overtime. Although the elderly population are most frequently affected, many younger patients can also be affected. Currently, no cure, be it medical or behavioural, has been isolated, however certain treatments have proved beneficial in delaying the onset or staying off further rapid deterioration. In addition to pharmaceutical treatment modalities, other support and managerial techniques may enable n enhanced quality of life.
Upon starting this Gerontology course, I was overwhelmed with the course expectations, having to complete an Older Adult Review project, weekly discussion board posts and comments with precise APA format (which I was horrible at) and lots of supplemental reading to fulfill the learning outcomes of this course. Nevertheless, I overcame all those obstacles and have obtained newfound knowledge of what it is like to age, firsthand, coming from one of my favorite patients which has cleared many of the stereotypes I had on the geriatric population. Thanks to this course and interviews with Mary, I have a better understanding of the geriatric population which will benefit my future career as a Registered Nurse.