The Impact Of Dementia On Caregiver Health

Dementia has a significant impact on family caregivers’ mental, physical and emotional health. Although previous research focuses heavily on the negative outcomes, researchers are shifting to evaluate the

As baby boomers age and the demographic of the nation changes, it is with increasing frequency that the terms dementia, Alzheimer’s, and chronic cognitive decline are included in common vocabulary. Television viewers are inundated with advertisements for Alzheimer’s medications. Popular sitcoms include episodes about dealing with the stresses that can occur in a family dealing with cognitive decline issues. Entire movies, such as Still Alice, speak to these issues from the perspective of the patient. Chronic cognitive decline has been brought to the forefront of the American culture not only in homes across the country but in the healthcare system where the challenges of recognizing, treating, and managing these conditions while providing quality of care can be challenging.

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

Dementia is a progressive disease that damages brain cells, wipes out memories, and changes the way a human being understands and functions in the world(Colistoga Press, 2013). When someone is diagnosed with Dementia or Alzheimers, it will change their entire life and their family. When diagnosed early, the patient can help plan their care while they have the ability to do so. The family also has time to plan care for their loved one and research the best option of care for them as they progress in their disease. Although there is not a single test that diagnosis dementia, your healthcare physician can make the diagnosis according to several exams, tests, and review of symptoms. Each person with dementia is different and it affects them differently, and they need to be treated so. It is important to study from the perspective of the family and person who is struggling with dementia." There is no 'one size fits all ' when you are dealing with a person who has dementia" (Rubinstein, N., 2011). They are unique, and the person you are dealing with is one of a kind, and their relationship with their family is one of a kind, so each person diagnosed with dementia will respond differently to treatment and care.

The impact that Alzheimer’s disease has on the patient’s family and caregivers is really devastating. It must be very hard for the patient’s family to see what their loved one is going through. They may feel grief and lose. It is a very unfortunate thing for both the patient and the family to live life with the loss of memory. They may have had so many good memories in the past but due to this disease patient may lose all those memories. It is very hard for family and caregivers to see the patient struggling with doing daily activities due to memory impairment. Sometimes it can be overwhelming for family members and caregiver to manage time because they have to give extra attention and dedication. They need to make sure that the patient is

More than five million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s(“What is Alzheimer’s?). Alzheimer’s is a disease that progessively worsens and eventually kills brain cells. The damaged brain cells lead to memory loss and trouble with cognitive thinking. Alzheimer’s deteriorates the brain slowly. Currently there is no cure for Alzheimer’s, but there are treatments. The treatmeants can’t reverse the damaged cells, but the process can be slowed. Placing a patient with Alzheimer’s in a long-term care facility is best for the patient’s health and well-being, because Alzheimer’s patients require around the clock care, caregivers will be overworked tending to

One fourth of Alzheimer's patients participate in physical aggression towards their caregivers which shows one of the major effects of AD. Another effect is that the Alzheimer's patients are not aware of what they have and have trouble explaining what they have, and it is not something that they can control. It is very clear that the caregivers of the patients fall into tremendous stress since the patients can't seem to remember who they are, and are unable to grasp a lot of their memories. It is determined that family members and caregivers taking care of the AD patients, need more social support in order to not fall into a high level of stress, because stress can cause the caregivers to leave the AD patient alone. Behaviors such as Yoga and exercise and simple ways of manipulating Alzheimer's disease, and though the disease as of today, still has no cure, there are scientist working on ways to control it and reduce the symptoms in order to change the patient's behaviors. This all shows that Alzheimer's Disease effects the caregivers overall due to the memory loss and personality change of the AD patients, and it also effects the caregivers due to the high level of stress that they

The number of people with dementia is escalating worldwide. An estimated 35.6 million people worldwide had dementia in 2010 and this number is projected to more than triple to 115.4 million in 2050. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and contributes to 60-70 % of the dementia cases (WHO, 2012). Approximately 5.2 million Americans of all ages had Alzheimer’s in 2014, including an estimated 5 million people age 65 and older (Alzheimer’s Association, 2014). The escalating number of people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is affecting increasing number of lives and the systems that care for them. It is disabling to the individuals who have it and can be devastating to the caregivers and their families. Caring for people with dementia posits huge major challenges in the upcoming decades. Therefore, the issues related to dementia such as negative stereotypes, need for attitude change and the ways to promote positive attitude toward people with dementia should be critically investigated and addressed to be better prepared in the future to tackle the challenges likely to be faced with escalating number of people with dementia.

According to Adult Development and Aging, dementia can be characterized as a severe cognitive decline and an issue that affects many lives and families all over the world (2015). In 2010, there was approximately “3.56 million people with dementia worldwide…which is only expected to double” (Cankurtaran, 2014). This indicates that there are many who are affected by dementia, revealing the importance of this subject. Studying the interrelationship between caregivers and people with dementia can help us better understand why certain behaviors elicited and what triggers these behaviors. Knowledge learned can then be applied by caregivers or family members during interactions with affected individuals in hopes of eliminating the frustration between

Caregivers are a vital part of the care team for clients with AD because as disease causes a continuous decline in the clients physical and cognitive ability, the clients with AD require more care and assistance (Edwards, 2015). Caregiver burden is the emotionally and physically taxing experience of caring for a person with a disease, like AD, on the caregiver, by looking at aspects of the care process such as how long it takes for the caregiver to assist the client with completing activities of daily living. Several studies addressed caregiver burden by looking at how interventions, intended to lessen caregiver burden, helped reduce caregiver burden for caregivers of clients with AD. For example, in one RCT study by DiZazzo-Miller et al. (2017) the intervention called the Family Caregiver Training Program (FCTP) was used to educate caregivers on activities of daily living in hopes of lessening caregiver burden. In another RCT study by Gitlin et al. (2018), the intervention called Tailored Activity Program (TAP-VA) was used with veterans with dementia and their caregivers by tailoring the home-based activities to what the client and caregiver enjoyed to hopefully lessen the emotional burden for both the client and caregiver. In both RCT studies, the researchers found that the

Alzheimer’s disease is one of the most prominent health issue in older adults. In fact, more than 35 million people are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease worldwide. (D’Aoust, Brewster, & Rowe, 2013) Of these individuals, a good portion are taken care of by at home caregivers. These caregivers can described by husbands, wives, mothers, and fathers. “Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic, progressive illness characterized by impaired cognition, loss of ability in instrumental and basic activities of daily living (aDL), reduced global functioning, and behavioral and psychological symptoms” (Haro, Kahle-Wrobleski, Belger, Agnello, Jones, Reed, Vellas, Wimo, & Argimon, Pg. 677, 2014) As the amount of patients with Alzheimer’s disease

The abstract in my research paper, “Monetary Costs of Dementia in the United States” helps me to understand the costs attributable to dementia are likely to continue to increase with the growing population of elders. The purpose of this article clearly stated the Dementia has affects a large and growing number of older adults between ages 51 and up in the United State. The sample conducts in the research sample on (856 person) in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Dementia is chronic disease of aging often misperception and confusion with the terms of the Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia is a symptom that causes memory loss and interferes with normal social or occupational functions. Citing the growing effect of dementia on patients, families,

There are about 5.3 million people with Alzheimers disease which is the most common form of dementia and it is predicted to increase as boomers generation enter old age (Tremont,2011).In U.S. about 14.9 million family caregivers are providing care for someone with Dementia (Alzheimer’s association,2011).Mostly, older adults with dementia receive care from their spouse but when the spouse are not available the caregiving task is taken over by adult children,especially daughter (Schulz & Martire, 2004). According to 2003 survey of 227 US dementia caregivers it was found that nearly one quarter provided 40 hours of care or more per week which included personal care such as bathing, feeding, and assisting with toileting (Brodaty & Dunkin, 2009).It is seen that

The rationale for focusing on caregivers of Alzheimer's patients is because “In 1997, the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in the United

The authors argued this study is an innovation research about dementia caregivers, because researchers collect their data from rural area dementia caregivers who have been long been forgotten, and all those pervious studies are only focusing on service-utilizing population who is affluent white people living at urban, furthermore, pervious findings are fail to address the geographic backgrounds of study participants. And in this cross-sectional research study, authors reach their participants by a creative and well designed approach which helped them get to the underlying data, and yet, found the similarities and differences between African American and non-Hispanic White family caregivers of dementia patients living in rural Alabama.