Many elderly people in Japan, especially those in nursing homes, suffer from dementia. What is dementia? What is dementia and how should we deal with it? It is very important to know the answers to these questions when we give nursing care.
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What is dementia? Is it a disease?
It is caused by a decline in cognitive function due to a variety of reasons, including brain diseases and disorders.
What symptoms are there in dementia?
One of them is that they forget their own name or names of their family members, or they quickly forget the names no matter how many times you ask. (They even forget the fact easily that they’ve eaten.)
There are many other symptoms related to memory and emotions, such as constantly asking to go home, walking around all night, and seeing and hearing things that are not really there. The symptoms vary from person to person.
Is it treatable?
Medication can slow down the speed at which the disease progresses, but it is difficult to cure it completely.
Each person’s symptoms will need to be treated individually.
How should we deal with their symptoms?
When you see for the first time an elderly person walking around at night, asking the same questions over and over again, you may feel uneasy not knowing how to respond. It’s okay because everyone feels the same way at first. Please ask your senior staff member to teach you. It is also important to watch and learn how they deal with those symptoms. You’ll get used to it little by little.