Inadequate Care or Improper Care Knowing that dementia has no cure, most elderly with are concern and have requested to spend their last days with families and loved ones in their homes. Yet it is reported that their wishes are not granted and most die in hospitals or acute care centers with less trained providers that understand their illness. Bayer, A. (2006), reported a case in 2003 which occurred in london. Patients that had died with cases of dementia were not recorded or evaluated for cognitive dysfunctions(p.101). Although other forms of methods were provided such as the mechanical ventilation and central venous lines, however they were not used as frequent as they should have been. In addition, dementia patients did not receive adequate
Butler, R. (2008). The Carers of People with Dementia. BMJ: British Medical Journal , 336, 1260-1261.
...tion with the outside world and loss of their life style. Communities need to be educated on dementia so that as to include and create activities they can join in. The residential homes decision makers need to monitor the cares’ behaviour as they and address issues within their working environment to improve and keep everything up to standard. The government need to implement and review their policies to make ensure quality care in residential homes. According to United Kingdom Health and Social Care (UKHCA), (2012) and The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), have been working on introducing new guidance which will help dementia patient to get more funding to live in their own homes and avoid living in residential home which is a positive move as people will still enjoy the comfort of their homes and receive excellent care.
Increasingly, people know from their own experience some painful dilemmas involving elderly or handicapped individuals who are in pain. While the achievements of modern medicine have been used to prolong and enhance life for many, they have also helped create an often dreaded context for dying. Costly technology may keep persons alive, but frequently these persons are cut off from meaningful relationships with others and exist with little or no hope for recovery. Many fearfully imagine a situation at the end of their lives where they or their trusted ones will have no say in decisions about their treatment.
care to the residents suffering from dementia. Banner et al (2009 as cited in Lee J.et al.2012)
“A healthcare provider’s bedside manner encompasses their medical knowledge, personality, and ability to understand the patient and communicate their concern for them.” (Britt). Although some individuals don’t see the importance of communication and emotional connection with patients in the medical field, doctors who have problems properly interacting with their patients will have a lower chance of success in healing them. Doctors receive so much education but are never taught proper bedside manners, which is the way that physicians interact with patients. In order to ensure a patient’s comfort, psychological well-being, and physical health, a physician must truly understand their patient.
Thanks in part to the scientific and technological advances of todays’ society, enhanced medicinal treatment options are helping people battle illnesses and diseases and live longer than ever before. Despite these advances, however, many people with life threatening illnesses have needs and concerns that are unidentified and therefore unmet at the end of life, notes Arnold, Artin, Griffith, Person and Graham (2006, p. 62). They further noted that when these needs and concerns remain unmet, due in part to the failure of providers to correctly evaluate these needs, as well as the patients’ reluctance to discuss them (p. 63, as originally noted by Heaven & Maguire, 1997), a patient’s quality of life may be adversely affected. According to Bosma et al. (2010, p. 84), “Many generalist social work skills regarding counseling, family systems, community resources, and psychosocial assessments are relevant to working with patients and families with terminal illness”, thereby placing social workers in the distinctive position of being able to support and assist clients with end of life decisions and care planning needs. In fact, they further noted that at some point, “most social work practitioners will encounter adults, children, and families who are facing progressive life limiting illness, dying, death, or bereavement” (p. 79).
Every older people suffering from dementia or any mental illness should contribute to decision-making process if able on about the services the resident gets and is empowered to practice choice and control over his or her way of life. Healthcare professionals need to offer residents with dementia significant parts in making their own particular care plans. We should give the majority of the residents as much decision as possible around both their care and environment.
One of the greatest dangers facing chronic and terminally ill patients is the grey area regarding PAS. In the Netherlands, there are strict criteria for the practice of PAS. Despite such stringencies, the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (1992) found 28% of the PAS cases in the Netherlands did not meet the criteria. The evidence suggests some of the patient’s lives may have ended prematurely or involuntarily. This problem can be addressed via advance directives. These directives would be written by competent individuals explaining their decision to be aided in dying when they are no longer capable of making medical decisions. These interpretations are largely defined by ones morals, understanding of ethics, individual attitudes, religious and cultural values.
In most facilities an initiative lifestyle has been organized to give people with dementia a voice in how and where they are cared for (White). This is how things should be everywhere in the world when it comes to people with dementia. People affected by this disease don’t need people to tell them what to do or make decisions for them, they need the freedom to do it themselves so they don’t give up. Although incapacity is common, many persons with dementia are capable of making their own medical and research decisions (Kim, Karlawish, and Caine). At the early stages of dementia, a will needs to be made so medical wishes can be granted. When people are given the freedom of choice, they are much happier, they live longer, and they have a better attitude about the disease they are suffering from. Individuals that get dementia did not get it by choice, but they live through it day by day with strength and the ability to live
The care of patients at the end of their live should be as humane and respectful to help them cope with the accompanying prognosis of the end of their lives. The reality of this situation is that all too often, the care a patient receives at the end of their life is quite different and generally not performed well. The healthcare system of the United States does not perform well within the scope of providing the patient with by all means a distress and pain free palliative or hospice care plan. To often patients do not have a specific plan implemented on how they wish to have their end of life care carried out for them. End of life decisions are frequently left to the decision of family member's or physicians who may not know what the patient needs are beforehand or is not acting in the patient's best wishes. This places the unenviable task of choosing care for the patient instead of the patient having a carefully written out plan on how to carry out their final days. A strategy that can improve the rate of care that patients receive and improve the healthcare system in general would be to have the patient create a end of life care plan with their primary care physician one to two years prior to when the physician feels that the patient is near the end of their life. This would put the decision making power on the patient and it would improve the quality of care the patient receives when they are at the end of their life. By developing a specific care plan, the patient would be in control of their wishes on how they would like their care to be handled when the time of death nears. We can identify strengths and weakness with this strategy and implement changes to the strategy to improve the overall system of care with...
Dementia worldwide is a common cause of death for the elderly. Dementia is a syndrome – usually of a chronic or progressive nature – in which there is deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from normal ageing. (WHO). Dementia can affect many things from memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, and calculation, learning capacity, language and even judgment. ““Dementia” is an umbrella term describing a variety of diseases and conditions that develop when nerve cells in the brain die or no longer function normally. The death or malfunction of these nerve cells, called neurons, causes changes in one’s memory, behavior and ability to think clearly” (Alz.org). To me, nothing seems worse than losing your mind at
Furthermore with the Dementia Care Plan patients, the intervention does not stop even if they are at home. Caregivers must follow-up their appointment with the patients for regular schedule. They should make sure that the pharmacological and no pharmacological approaches should be
The chosen mental disorder is Dementia. Reading and learning about this disorder has helps me to understand some of the symptoms and problems patients and their family members go through when faced with this challenging and progressive disease. It will also help me in the future when working with individuals with various types of dementia. Dementia is not a specific disease. It is a general term describing the decline in mental ability that is severe enough to interfere with someone daily life. Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia. It accounts for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases. The second most common dementia is vascular dementia. It occurs after a person had a stroke. There are other conditions that could cause symptoms of
Introduction This assignment critically discusses dementia, a widespread disability among older adults today. It provides an introduction to dementia and analyses its prevalence in society. The various forms of dementia are elaborated with descriptions of dysfunctions and symptoms. Nursing Assessment and Interventions are provided in the further sections which discuss actions nurses should take while evaluating patients and treating them.
Choosing to live or die with dignity is a choice a terminally-ill person who is conscious should be able to make. Just like patients have the right to refuse life-saving medical treatment and doctors have the right to deny a patient a life-saving operation because of their age, or because they are “high risk,” patients should have the choice to ask for medication that will end their pain and suffering. Like advance directive and advance care planning (ACP), where a person appoints a specific person to make health care decisions in case of incapacitation such as coma or dementia. ACP leaves written instruction of medical treatment that should or should not be performed that would prolong their life in hypothetical medical scenarios. The option to get help from a physician at the end of life to let them die with dignity while they are still able to make decisions should be added to the