nursing illness and disease/wk5/project/FINAL
E2002susi
SU-4055Wk3-PROJECT31.docxRunning head: CHRONIC ILLNESS 1
CHRONIC ILLNESS 6
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease Intervention and Support Needs
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease Intervention and Support Needs
M.A. is a 61-year-old African American woman who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She is still in her mid-stage of the illness, meaning that symptoms have not completely progressed, even though she has various symptoms of dementia at the moment. In an interview with M.A., various issues were identified that could affect her care. The two main issues identified that will affect her care and support needs include the inadequate family support and the emotional distress she experiences as a result of the illness, which could possibly be depression. The following are the support needs and interventions that ae recommended for helping to improve M.A. wellness.
Support Needs for M.A.
Dementia diagnosis came as a shock for M.A. and her family members. It has affected various aspects of her life such as her independence, social relationships and roles, her confidence, ability to carry out the daily activities, and her mental wellness among other things. The following support needs aim at improving the quality of her life and improve her wellness.
i. Professional home assistance
One of the main issues identified in M.A.’s assessment is that she lacks adequate support. Due the symptoms of dementia, Alzheimer’s patients need adequate professional support, or support from a person with knowledge of the illness, to perform their day-to-day activities and be safe from harm. Dementia is characterized by symptoms such as memory loss, which affect’s a patient’s ability to do a lot of the daily activities. It is risky for M.A. to continue living alone with her illness progressing to the later stages. Therefore, the professional help will help her to deal with the loss of independence and also keep her safe.
ii. Home adaptation
The second change that is required in M.A.’s life to help her with her illness is adaptation in her home, to keep her safe and make life easier as the illness progresses. The most common symptom of Alzheimer’s is the memory loss (Poblador-Plou et al., 2014). As the chronic illness progresses, M.A. is more likely to become more forgetful. Changes such as making the most common usable products in places that are easier to see are needed to maintain independence for much longer (Prince et al., 2017). For instance, things like toiletries, commonly used utensils, and other valuable that she might like should be stored in easily visible places. This way, she will be able to see what she needs easily if she forgets the storage place. Home adaptation is also meant to improve safety. When demented, patients tend to do things that may be harmful such as going out and forgetting their way home or forgetting the stove on. Safety adaptation will help to keep M.A from harming herself or any other person.
iii. Social support
In her interview, one of the issues that stressed M.A. the most was the change in her social life. She is no longer able to participate in social events or interact with people as she used to before the diagnosis. Therefore, it is recommended that more is done on her social life to improve her emotional well-being. For instance, she can be taken to social gatherings of things that she likes and monitored. She also needs more visits from her family because her life at the moment is too socially isolated because her children do not live with her.
iv. Emotional support
M.A. is also in need of a lot of emotional support. She is experiencing distress because of the changes that are taking place in her life after the diagnosis. Patients of Alzheimer’s and other dementias require a lot of emotional support for the exhausting challenges that take a toll on their health. M.A. requires more emotional support, especially because she has expressed a lot of signs of mental distress, caused by the experiences of the chronic illness. The emotional support she needs if from friends and family and also from other patients with similar experiences as hers. Joining a support group can help her deal with her emotional distress because of the interaction with patients with the same experiences as hers.
How to Implement Objectives of Healthy People 2020 to increase Wellness
There are two main objectives of the Healthy People 2020 initiative to improve the state of public health in relation to Dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease. First, Healthy People 2020 has the objective to increase the number of elderly people above 65 years who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia and to have caregivers who are aware of their respective diagnoses. M.A. has already contributed to the achievement of the first objective. For most patients, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s start to occur at an elderly age of above 65 years. M.A.’s illness started progressing at a younger age; hence, she was diagnosed early and has already started taking treatments to deal with the problem. Her family and caregivers are aware that she has Alzheimer’s disease, so she can receive the care and support she needs to improve her wellness.
The second objective is to reduce the number of preventable hospitalization of elderly people above the age of 65 who have been diagnosed with some form of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. There are many changes in M.A.’s life that will help to achieve this objective. First, she will have a nursing professional to provide primary care and ensure that she has access to all the things she needs to have positive health. The nurse will be in charge of helping with the day-to-day activities and giving of medications that help to improve the patient’s well-being. M.A. will also achieve this objective by joining an Alzheimer’s disease support group. One of the most common comorbidities of Alzheimer’s is depression (Garcez et al., 2015). Patients with dementia go through a lot of emotional and mental distress, which can lead to clinical depression. M.A., has shown signs of destress as can be seen in her interview. It is important that she is a part of a support group to help with the problem to avoid experiencing physical health issues that could lead to her hospitalization. Lastly, M.A. will reduce the chances of hospitalization by staying socially active. Social activity stimulates cognitive activity, which in turn helps to reduce cognitive decline (Czaja, 2016). The social activity will help to reduce the progression of M.A.’s illness an also act as another source of emotional support to enhance her well-being.
Conclusion
References
Czaja, S. J. (2016). Long-term care services and support systems for older adults: The role of technology. American Psychologist, 71(4), 294.
Garcez, M. L., Falchetti, A. C. B., Mina, F., & Budni, J. (2015). Alzheimer s disease associated with psychiatric comorbidities. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 87(2), 1461-1473.
Poblador-Plou, B., Calderón-Larrañaga, A., Marta-Moreno, J., Hancco-Saavedra, J., Sicras-Mainar, A., Soljak, M., & Prados-Torres, A. (2014). Comorbidity of dementia: a cross-sectional study of primary care older patients. BMC psychiatry, 14(1), 84.
Prince, M., Comas-Herrera, A., Knapp, M., Guerchet, M., & Karagiannidou, M. (2016). World Alzheimer report 2016: improving healthcare for people living with dementia: coverage, quality and costs now and in the future.
