When your partner, parent, or loved one gets diagnosed with dementia, you want to do everything in your power to help them, including their thinking skills, behaviour, mood, and memory. A lot is at stake, but handy measures are there to help.
Diagnosis
Diagnosing dementia poses a challenging task. To determine the cause of dementia, the doctor must first understand the pattern of skills or function and be able to determine what a person is capable of doing. Bookmarkers have recently become aware enough to conduct an accurate assessment of the dementia disease.
The doctor is going to review the medical history along with symptoms and conduct a detailed physical examination. They are likely to seek a second opinion from someone close to you about your symptoms. A single test is not able to detect dementia, so doctors will run a number of tests to get an idea of the problem.
Treatment
Various types of dementia are there that are not curable, but you can manage the symptoms.
Medications
The following medicines are used to treat dementia symptoms:
- Mematine: Mematine works by regulating the function of glutmate, a chemical messenger involved in brain functions such as memory and learning. But a common side effect of its use is dizziness. Hence, the top dementia care centre in Kerala uses it at a marginal level.
- Cholinesterase-Donepezil (Aricept), rivastigmine (Exelon), and galantamine (Razadyne) are among the drugs that act by increasing the levels of a chemical messenger important in memory and judgement.
Although these drugs are most commonly used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, they can also be used to treat other dementias such as vascular dementia, Parkinson’s disease dementia, and Lewy body dementia. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea are all possible side effects. Slowed heart rate, fainting, and sleep disruptions are all possible side effects.
- Other medications: The doctor may prescribe medications to deal with the symptoms or other conditions such as sleep disturbances, depression, or agitation.
Therapies
Numerous dementia symptoms and behavioural problems may be treated at an initial level using non-drug approaches.
- Modifying the environment: the reduction of clutter or noise ensures someone suffering from dementia is able to focus and function properly. You may have to hide objects that threaten your safety, such as car keys or knives. A monitoring system is of help if a patient with dementia wanders off. This is one of the main reasons why the best elderly homes for dementia have cameras installed at their premises.
- Occupational Therapy: An occupational therapist can demonstrate how to make your home safe and teach coping skills. Their objective is to prevent accidents like falls, deal with behaviour and enable you to deal with the progression of dementia.
- Simplifying tasks: The tasks are broken into small steps as the focus is on success and not on failure. Routine and structure help to reduce the number of people suffering from dementia.
Lifestyle changes and home remedies
Behavioural problems and symptoms of dementia will progress over time. Caretakers and care givers are likely to follow the below suggestions.
- Enhance communication: When you are interacting with your loved ones, ensure eye contact. Do not rush the response and speak slowly in easy-to-understand sentences. Resort to gestures or cues and present one idea at a time.
- Encourage exercise: Exercise can help people with dementia improve their strength, balance, and cardiovascular health. Exercise may also assist with restlessness and other symptoms. Exercise appears to protect the brain against dementia, especially when accompanied by a good diet and therapy for cardiovascular disease risk factors.
- Develop a plan for future care with your loved one while he or she is still able to participate. Others, such as support organisations, legal counsel, and family members, may be able to assist. You’ll need to think about financial and legal considerations, as well as safety and everyday living challenges, as well as long-term care possibilities.
You can extend help to a patient suffering from dementia by listening, reassuring the person that they can enjoy life, being positive and supportive. But providing care to a dementia patient is an emotional-draining and mentally challenging task. Fear of guilt and social isolation are common.