Dementia: Understanding This Health Condition

Home Care Philadelphia

Caring For Seniors With Dementia

Family members of seniors suffering from dementia sometimes find this condition extremely painful emotionally. Many health conditions experienced by elderly people result in brain damage that contributes to behavioral changes. Alzheimer's Disease, heart disease, kidney disease, strokes, and a variety of other health conditions sometimes produce dementia symptoms in older people.

A person suffering from dementia displays unusual impulsive, confused or even irrational activity. The individual may appear perfectly normal one minute, yet seem lost in the past or disoriented just a few moments later. Family members caring for an individual in this condition may require additional assistance from the community or medical support services.

Expect Unusual Behavior

It remains very important to realize that a dementia sufferer has not fundamentally changed as a person. That individual simply no longer functions well in many situations. This fact means that caregivers must prepare potentially to handle a variety of challenging behaviors:

  • People with dementia often suffer memory losses, especially regarding recent events, and they may become lost easily even within formerly familiar surroundings.
  • A senior may lose the ability to maintain adequate levels of personal grooming, or to perform basic daily living activities, such as meal preparation, house cleaning, bathing, driving or dressing.
  • Some seniors with dementia suffer from incontinence, others require assistance using the bathroom or eating.
  • A dementia patient may forget familiar faces or words easily and may repeat the same conversation or questions repeatedly.
  • Seniors with dementia frequently lose the ability to manage money.
  • A dementia patient may become irritable or agitated easily and may act in an irrational manner or grow unusually emotional or garrulous without warning.
  • Some seniors with this condition also suffer from hallucinations, sexually inappropriate behaviors, paranoia and other mental health symptoms.

Individual Differences

In some dementia patients, the symptoms of dementia occur sporadically. For instance, a senior may appear normal most of the time, yet become agitated or enraged when confronted with an unexpected event or schedule change. Other dementia patients grow progressively worse over time and gradually lose all the skills required to maintain independence.

Since many different medical causes underlie dementia, the level of brain changes and brain damage experienced by individual seniors with this condition varies widely. Some medical conditions, such as Alzheimer's Disease, will progress over time from mild to severe levels of impairment.

Assistance For Caregivers

Consulting with a trusted family physician about an individual senior's situation usually proves very helpful for family members if a loved one displays signs of dementia. Additionally, today many senior care agencies offer support services to assist families caring for elderly dementia patients.

Author Bio

Paulo Yvonne works for many years with a mission to help seniors live wonderful and comfortable lives at home. He believes in making the world a better place for seniors and is committed to revolutionizing the Philadelphia Home Care. He dedicates his time to managing the daily issues faced by seniors and their families. Paulo‘s passion for loving and caring for seniors has no boundaries.

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