It was fun and interesting to work with the old ladies in Edgewood Vista. The time for this exercise class was too short; I really hope we could have longer time for the interaction. What I did not expect was that the ladies might in the early stage of dementia or cognitive impairment, so most of them were able to follow the instructions well, so we did not experience the scenario we had at class. Only one lady seemed confused a lot of time, which was within our expectation. Hearing impairment was also within expectation, so we had to speak louder and sometimes toward their ear directly. The evidence we found was that exercise training was helpful for improving cognitive function and positive behavior in geriatric patients who have dementia. …show more content…
For example, one lady was so quiet and seemed confused about what to do when playing the balloon tossing game while all the other ladies were so active to tap the balloon back and forth, so the quiet lady did not get enough chance to get involved in the game. I tried to toss the balloon directly to her several times, but since she was slow in response, other ladies tap the balloon away from her. In another coin matching game, the ladies were instructed to walk back and forth between two tables to pick up different coins from one table and match them with the coins on the other table. There was a lady who was cognitively competent for this game, but due to the need to walk with a FWW, she was slower than other ladies. And the table was small, so most of the time she had to wait outside of the crowd to get the coins, which made her upset. The bowling game at the end of the class was very successful. We had two sets of bowling, and the ladies could either sit or stand and took turns to play bowling. The quiet lady who was confused most of the time could watch her peers doing the game then following them. From the dementia lecture, we learned not to use reorientation, so during the coin game, when the quiet lady put the coins to her pocket, we did not stop her. Instead, Serria did a very good job to ask her grasp another coin and match it with the ones on the other table. She was able to follow her instructions a few times. For my future practice, I may not use group therapy for the dementia patients especially when they were not in the same cognitive or physical level. I will be patience and slow down with the dementia patients and not give reorientation if they did something
3.2 list different techniques that can be used to facilitate positive interactions with an individual with dementia
Mrs. Nancy Hamilton (changed name for privacy) is 95 years old female who resides in a local continued care retirement community (CCRC) located in the Los Angeles County. I decided to interview Mrs. Hamilton for her successful aging. I have known her for 9 years and her aging process has not been an easy ride but she always maintained a positive sprit that kept her going even today. Mrs. Hamilton moved in to a CCRC in 2006, two years after her husband passed away. Mrs. Hamilton has one daughter and one son. Daughter Margaret lives nearby and visits frequently and takes care of personally needs such as transportation to medical appointments or shopping for skin care products or clothes as necessary. Son, David lives in the Northern California and visits a few times a year.
performance that involves, but is not limited to, a loss in at least 2 of the
Alzheimer’s disease is a complex illness that affects the brain tissue directly and undergoes gradual memory and behavioral changes which makes it difficult to diagnose. It is known to be the most common form of dementia and is irreversible. Over four million older Americans have Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to triple in the next twenty years as more people live into their eighties and nineties. (Johnson, 1989). There is still no cure for Alzheimer’s but throughout the past few years a lot of progress has been made.
Scientists believe that for most people, Alzheimer's results from a combination of genetics, lifestyle and environmental factors that affect the brain over time. Alzheimer's is caused by specific genetic changes that virtually guarantee a person will develop the disease. The causal effect for this disease is still unknown with fingers pointing to plaques and tangles in the brain. Although the causes of Alzheimer's are not yet fully understood, its effect on the brain is clear. Alzheimer's disease damages and kills brain cells. A brain affected by Alzheimer's disease has many fewer cells and many fewer connections among surviving cells than does a healthy brain. As more and more brain cells die, Alzheimer's leads to enormous brain shrinkage. When doctors examined an Alzheimer's brain tissue under the microscope, they saw two types of abnormalities that are considered the cause of the disease. One of these abnormalities is plaques that clump up, a protein called beta-amyloid which damages and destroys brain cells. In patients with Alzheimer’s the plaques created interfere with cell to cell communication. The other abnormality seen is tangles in the brain. Brain cells depend on an internal support and transport system to carry nutrients and other essential materials throughout their long extensions. This system requires the normal structure and functioning of a protein called tau. In an Alzheimer's patient, the threads of tau protein twist into abnormal tangles inside the brain cells, leading to failure of the transport system. (Alzheimer's Association) (National Institutes of Health, 2012)
Alzheimer’s disease, named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer, is a disease that is on the rise in America and the rest of the world. People should learn as much as they want about this disease, because as you age, your chances of becoming an Alzheimer’s Disease, or AD, patient increases. It is estimated that approximately 3 percent of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 have the illness, and more than half of all people over age 85 have the ailment.
Participation in leisure activities, such as dance, is associated with a reduced risk of development of dementia, both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia (Verghese et al., 2003). Dementia is “a general term that describes a group of symptoms-such as loss of memory, judgment, language, complex motor skills, and other intellectual function-caused by the permanent damage or death of the brain's nerve cells, or neurons” (Alzheimer’s Foundation of America [AFA], 2015, para 1). Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in persons over the age of 65, representing about 60 percent of all dementias. Dementia is specifically characterized by “different pathologic, or structural, changes in the brain, such as an accumulation of abnormal plaques and tangles in individuals with Alzheimer's disease, and abnormal tau protein in individuals with frontotemporal dementia”(para 1).
The word dementia is often used as an umbrella term to describe a wide range of symptoms. Dementia is commonly used to describe those with a decline in mental abilities that potentially interferes with their everyday life. This is common in older adults and may develop gradually or even appear suddenly. It is also important to note that, “dementia is more prevalent in older adults with the rate doubling about every 5 years after the age of 75 (Erber,2005; Papalia et al.,1996)” (Davis, Gfeller, & Thaut, 2008). Dementia not only affects the person who is diagnosed with it but also family and friends. Those who have dementia may have a hard time communicating effectively and that can add stress to those close to them. With regards to that, music therapy can be a great way to maintain mental abilities of those with dementia and help families communicate better with their loved one.
It is said that memory declines as people age, and this can be just a natural part of life. However, in many cases as people grow older, they develop a mental disorder known as Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s is a disease that causes problems with memory, thinking, and overall behavior, and progressively becomes a bigger problem. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia and is a very common disease in people over the age of 65. This terminal disease puts tremendous stress on the victim and the victim’s family. A cure for Alzheimer’s has yet to be discovered; however, through healthy and constant use of the brain and the aid of certain drug treatments, Alzheimer’s disease can be both naturally and medically prevented.
One of the most common problems in elders is dementia. The Alzheimer’s Association describes dementia as a range of symptoms rather than just one single specific disease. The symptoms of dementia range from memory loss as well as a decline in thinking skills to severe symptoms that lead to the decline of that person’s ability to perform activities of daily living (What
Alzheimer’s disease or AD is an incurable disorder of the brain that results in loss of normal brain structure and function. In an AD brain, normal brain tissue is slowly replaced by structures called plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The plaques represent a naturally occurring sticky protein called beta amyloid and in an Alzheimer’s brain, sufferer’s tend to accumulate too much of this protein. Neurofibrillary tangles represent collapsed tau proteins which, in a normal brain along with microtubules, form a skeleton that maintains the shape of the nerve cells. In Alzheimer’s disease, the tau proteins break loose from their normal location and form tangles. Without the support of these molecules, nerve cells collapse and die. As normal brain structure is lost with progression of the disease, brain function also degenerates. Patients afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease display a gradual mental decline. Initially, and most apparently, there is a loss of short-term memory. Eventually, as a patient progresses to later stages of the disease, the brain becomes so damaged that patients can no longer communicate or recognize immediate family or even themselves. They have difficulty walking and standing and frequently fall. In the final stages, they lose bladder and bowel control and have difficulty with swallowing, frequently leaving them malnourished and dehydrated. Eventually, they are forced to remain bedridden and, without the help of life-prolonging measures provided in a hospital, die. However, this level of deterioration is severe and may take as long as twenty years. Because of the disease’s slow progress and its usual later start in a person’s life, a victim of AD will usually die first of natural causes. Under the objectives ...
It is inevitable that eventually each of us will grow old and begin to face more and more health problems as our age rises. Elderly people are challenged by many illnesses and diseases that unfortunately, are incurable. One disease that becomes more common as people age is Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s a common cause and a form of dementia and can severely damage a patient’s cognitive functions and can ultimately cause death. Living with Alzheimer’s disease can be saddening for both the sufferer and the family. Family and friends will find it very hard to cope when a loved one begins slipping away and losing memory of who they are.
People that are diagnosed with Dementia have an advanced brain disorder that can make it progressively more difficult for them to think clearly, remember things, communicate to others, or even take care of themselves on their own. I have been personally affected by this disorder through members of my family and that is why this particular lecture caught my attention the most. I didn’t realize how serious this disorder can be and how much it not only impacts a person’s memory loss, but many other aspects of their life. The topics that interested me the most and ones I wanted to learn more about were normal aging memory loss versus symptoms of Dementia, how families cope with a loved one with Dementia, and the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
In this world, humans and animals alike have come to communicate by using various mechanisms. Humans have advanced themselves beyond other organisms by using language, or a set of codes and symbols, in order to express themselves to others. Language has brought about a means to create new thoughts, to explore, and to analyze our everyday surroundings. It has also enabled us to retain past memories and to look deep into the advances for the future. However, for some individuals, this tool for communication has been plagued by a language and speech disorders, such as aphasia. Aphasia is the loss of the ability to speak or understand speech or written language. It is often detected at an early age, and contributes to the general class of speech and language disorders affecting "5% of school aged children" (1) . Aphasia is classified into three categories. The main two are receptive or sensory aphasia and expressive or motor aphasia. Receptive aphasia affects the input side and "the ability to understand spoken or written language may be partially or totally lost" (1) . Those with expressive aphasia "can speak but not find certain words or names, or may be totally unable to communicate verbally or by writing" (1) . For a majority of affected individuals, there is a combination of the two. The third type is conduction aphasia. This "involves disruption of transmission between the sensory and motor ends of the circuit" (1) . Here, individuals are able to produce speech despite the lack of connections to the input side. It seems that the ability to speak has a lot to do with your surroundings and how much emphasis was placed on developing this skill during the first few years after birth. Afterall, it's known that the first few years are critical because this is the time when the brain is "plastic" and is rapidly changing and being molded. By the time that adolescence is reached, the brain has become "less plastic". In this paper, I would like to explore theories proposed to try to understand the origins of this impairment.
Throughout the case study, Dan Lee, a Chinese American, was struggling with concentrating on his college studies and reoccurring personal conflicts amongst people. Dan is an undergraduate student preparing to apply for medical school, which he cannot apply unless he passes all necessary courses. However, he has been having some difficulty with staying on top of all assignments given. Also, he seeks help from the university-counseling center with his feelings of anxiety, tension, sadness, and anger. Many of these feelings arise when his fellow peers, family, and friends does not see that he is always “right” and they are always “wrong”. Although, in some cases he feels disrespected by the way his mother and sister does not abide