Dementia – Be Aware of the Signs
Christmas is traditionally the one time of year that families get together and spend prolonged time together – perhaps far more so than they do during the rest of the year. Perhaps this explains the timing of the campaign launched this week by the UK government to make people familiarise themselves with the early signs of dementia. The aim of the campaign is to boost early diagnosis which can greatly improve the quality of life for people suffering from the disease.
Dementia is a disease and is not just part of ‘getting old’. Forgetting things and becoming confused, experiencing problems in thinking and language are not an inevitable part of growing old.
The campaign addresses the fear that many people have of going to see their GP, because they really don’t want to be diagnosed as having dementia. This means that such people don’t get the early medical intervention that can help to ease their condition – this intervention is most effective during the early stages of the disease, but even later on it can slow its progress and improve the quality of life.
Altzheimer’s disease is but one type of dementia, accounting for about two-thirds of the cases of dementia in the UK. Other types of dementia include vascular dementia (where insufficient blood reaches parts of the brain); dementia and Lewy bodies (abnormal structures appear in the brain); and frontotemporal dementia (where two parts of the brain start shrinking).
The Department of Health urges people to speak to their GP (or talk to the GP who cares for a relative or friend about whom they are concerned) if they notice:
difficulty remembering recent events, even if they can remember things that happened a long time ago;
difficulty keeping up with conversations or programmes on TV;
forgetting things like friends names, or names of things around them, or things they’ve heard/seen/read;
repeating things they’ve already said;
mood swings, including feeling angry or anxious about their memory;
other people have noticed and commented on their memory loss.
Symptoms get worse as time goes on, over several years. Because it can be insipid, it may be that it goes unnoticed until someone visits who hasn’t seen that person for a long time and sees a dramatic change over a long period.
As well as medical intervention, social services can help to support people with dementia by putting in place coping strategies, like having a set place to put the keys.
