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Dementia and Caregiving
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
Dementia and Caregiving
Research indicates that about 5.8 million American Citizens have been at least diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (NHS, 2014). With this ambiguous figure, it’s unfortunate to note that Dementia is the sixth leading cause of death in the USA. On the other hand, Delirium, which most people usually contract upon hospitalization, has been linked with adverse effects like prolonged hospitalization, an increase in the use of chemical and physical restraints, increased mortality, and some far-reaching impacts (Toan Lam, 2016). Unchecked cases of Delirium usually develop into Dementia within two years of contraction. Extreme cases of Dementia may warrant long-term nursing, probably home-based care.
Cases of Delirium can be offset by old age, cases of severe illness, multiple mobilities, vision impairment, and even earlier issues of delirium diagnosis. Risk factors that precipitate this illness include acute illnesses, electrolyte disturbance, urinary retention, exposure to risky medications, and other factors. Clinicians and psychiatrists employ the use of CAM to identify and recognize early cases of Delirium. The device can differentiate between Delirium and different types of cognitive impairment. Cases of Delirium must be handled with significant risk to identify and treat the underlying infections and provide the required supportive care.
The strain on caregivers usually happens due to persistent problems and reduced well-being as a result of exercising prolonged caregiving. This is generally precipitated by many cases of burnout caregivers or premature hospitalization of care recipient patients. As a result of their overworking, caregivers have been reported to be prone to depression, grief issues, financial hardships that come from being underpaid, and many other limitations (NHS, 2014). The MCSI is a tool that has been developed for scanning caregivers’ strain among long-term caregivers in health institutions. The scoring ranges on the MCSI vary from 26 being indicated as a high score and 0 as no case for the strain. With an enlarged understanding of the stress being practiced by the caregivers with varying backgrounds, vigor, support, targeted interventions for the caregivers might be adopted. High scores on the MCSI usually indicate an increased need for more in-depth assessment to develop better interventions (Lisa, 2018). The overall caregiving experience is generally coupled with family conflict, work-related caregiving conflict, the financial strain among caregivers, and many others.
In the USA, cases of mistreatment of the elderly have been on the rise, with estimations of over 700,000 to 1.2 million issues per year. However, it’s alarming to note that these cases are not usually reported as there is a lack of appropriate screening tools (NHS, 2014). Unchecked cases of abuse, mistreatment, neglect, and exploitation usually result in elder mistreatment. Elder mistreatment may be in the form of physical abuse, financial abuse, emotional abuse, or even sexual abuse. The EAI assessment tool reviews the signs, symptoms, complaints of elder abuse and neglect. Any slight evidence of mistreatment among the elderly warrants the case reported to social services officers (Toan Lam, 2016). Whenever subjective complaints are reported by older adults and whenever clinicians believe there has been a high risk of abuse or neglect among the elderly social services should be informed to take charge of the matter. The EAI can be used in all clinical settings, and it’s reported to have a high sensitivity and less specific module. The instrument has a rapid assessment capacity with no scoring system and a weakened specificity.
References
Lisa L Omega, Ph.D., RN, MBA. (2018). West Virginia University School of Nursing. The Modified Caregiver Strain Index (MCSI).
NHS, T. (2014). Barbara, the whole story [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtA2sMAjU_Y
Toan Lam. (2016). Caregiving Documentary: Full-Length Interview: Richard Lui, Pt. 1 [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPGiDEZ-awE&t=16s
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