Dementia Awareness

“Dementia” covers a wide range of medical conditions inlcuding Alzheimer’s disease.  The broad term “Dementia” refers to abnormal changes in the brain which trigger a decline in a person’s cognitive skills, or their ability to think clearly.  These changes interfere with the person’s ability to live independently also impacting on their moods, behaviours and relationships.  Dementia Awareness training gives carers valuable knowledge to be able to dispel some of the myths about dementia.  The term “Dementia” is very different from senility and there is a widespread, and incorrect, assumption that mental decline is a normal part of aging.

The course is intended for anyone who works with people who suffer with dementia.  In general, this will be carers in residential care homes and nursing homes.  However, the course is beneficial to those who care for relatives in their home environment.

Dementia Awareness training gives carers valuable knowledge to be able to dispel some of the myths about dementia and other associated conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Dementia is used to describe the symptoms that occur when the brain is affected by specific diseases and conditions. Dementia is a chronic progressive problem of cognition, which is failure of the brain’s functions. It affects different parts of the brain, and it is affected at different speeds. The dementia awareness course takes the learner through the types of damage that can occur in the brain and what affect it has on the individual. The basic overview of the potentially affected areas of the brain are:

The frontal lobes. These are our controller. Damage to the frontal lobes can lead to the individual no longer being aware of what actions could be seen by others as inappropriate.

The parietal lobes. Damage to these by dementia will cause the individual to have difficulty with language, vision, or knowing what things are for.

The temporal lobes. Damage to this area of the brain causes the individual to have problems with short term memory. And over time, the long term memories may also fade as the damage increases further into the deeper regions of the brain.

Then there are the areas of the brain that are responsible for our learning, for problem solving and for thought processes. The speed of dementia stages vary considerably from person to person.

There are quite a few and the ones covered by the course are Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease with dementia, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia, or picks, Lewy bodies and Korsakoff syndrome. Here you will learn about how these diseases change the structure of the brain and how it interferes with the brains usual activity.

How quickly dementia progresses depends on the individual. Each person is unique and experiences dementia in their own way. The way they experience it depends on many factors, including physical makeup, emotional resilience, and the support available to them.

This dementia awareness course concludes by examining what therapies are available to help manage and alleviate the condition. These strategies include

• orientation to environment,
• reality orientation,
• reminiscence therapy
• and photographs.
• also encouraging them to talk about the past and
• adapting our communication.

The Alzheimers Society explain what dementia is, including the causes and symptoms, different dementia stages and how it is diagnosed and treated at “What is Dementia?”