Blog posts tagged with 'elderly care'

The term ‘dementia’ is used to describe a set of symptoms that occur when the brain is damaged by specific diseases. These diseases include Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Vascular dementia is the second most common form of dementia and it is caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive illness that affects every person differently. This means that the structure and chemistry of the brain become increasingly damaged over time. It can however, be helpful to think of the way the condition progresses as a series of stages. This blog post outlines the characteristics of early, middle and late stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dementia is one of the biggest health and care challenge our country faces – one that all of society must respond to.

Did you know?

Although there is a small political focus on dementia, the progress is too slow. There will be more than a million people living with dementia by the end of the next parliament and there will not be a family in the country that is not affected.

The Alzheimer’s Society is currently in the process of trying to make dementia a priority for the forthcoming 2015 election. They want the new government to improve the lives of people living with dementia, and they need everyone’s help to make this happen, including yours.

The general election is an opportunity to make sure people living with dementia are better supported through their ‘Dementia Promise’ manifesto. The manifesto sets out 12 actions that the government must take in order to improve the lives of people living with dementia.

12 Actions Include:

1. Commit to increase diagnosis to at least 75% everywhere by 2017
2. Ensure a streamlined diagnosis process to cut waiting times
3. Ensure everyone with dementia has access to a dementia adviser
4. Ensure everyone has the right to a career assessment and guaranteed support
5. Regulate that home care visits should be no less than 30 minutes
6. Fund an annual national dementia awareness campaign
7. Commit to all health and care settings being dementia friendly
8. Ensure all service providers and care works in dementia care have protected dementia training time
9. Demonstrate leadership in creating a dementia friendly society with a commitment that all national and local government employees become dementia friends
10. Ensure every person with dementia has the same state support in managing their condition as people with cancer
11. Double the spend on dementia research, focussing on risk reduction and improving care as well as cure
12. Develop and publish a national plan, jointly owned by government and key delivery stakeholders, to raise the ambition for people with dementia

Their aim is to go to parliament to present the dementia promise to MPs and to talk to politicians about what they can do to make a positive difference to the lives of people affected by dementia.

In next week’s blog, we will present why change is so important to the UK healthcare system.

Even though the frost has arrived and the temperature is declining, there is no need to be unhealthy throughout the winter months! The NHS have suggested 5 ways to make sure you are keeping healthy and fit, even when your body is telling you to hibernate.

As we are in the height of summer time in the UK, keeping cool is something we are all trying to achieve. One of the main ways to keep cool in the heat is to take cold showers or baths. About one third of the elderly population over the age of 65 fall each year. Falls can be caused by numerous incidents, but one of the main causes is in abathroom environment. Wet slippery floors, high tub walls to step over and confined spaces can make bathrooms dangerous for just about anyone, let alone the elderly and people with limited mobility.

This week a new health report was published regarding ways to prevent the Alzheimer’s disease. According to research from the University of Cambridge, one in three cases of Alzheimer’s disease worldwide is preventable. This is a step forward for the healthcare industry as successful treatment for Alzheimer’s disease is still in the research stages.

At Repton Medical we believe in putting Patient Safety first. Our focus is to provide Fall Prevention Solutions and Products to reduce numbers of people who fall & the rate of falls in hospital and community healthcare settings. As the NHS begins to implement their Patient Safety initiative we are there to provide practical and economic solutions to support the campaign.

To find out more about the campaign please visit the Sign up to Safety website.

This is the sixth installment of the ‘Help to Reduce Your Risk and Protect You Brain’ series. The sixth prevention pillar that I will be writing about is an active social life. Us as human beings are highly social creatures. We don’t thrive in isolation and neither do our brains. Studies show that the more connected we are, the better we fare on tests of memory and cognition. Staying socially active may even protect against Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, so make your social life priority.

This is the fifth installment of the ‘Help to Reduce Your Risk and Protect You Brain’ series. The fifth prevention pillar that I will be writing about is stress management. Chronic or severe stress takes a heavy toll on the brain which leads to shrinkage in key memory areas of the brain known as the hippocampus. This is a hampering nerve cell grow which will increase your risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. You can add simple tools into your daily routine to minimize its harmful effects.