Dementia

I’m applying for a Care Assistant position, in an elderly care home where 26 out of the 28 residents have some form of dementia. Therefore on the BBC website this morning, the headline “Uneven dementia care ‘disgraceful’” caught my attention.

800,000 people in the UK have some form of dementia; most of these people have not been diagnosed. In the UK there has been a rise from 43% in 2011, to 46% in 2012. The article talks about the major problem being that with late diagnosis, people are left to suffer unnecessarily. 

Dementia is associated as an on-going syndrome where, progressively the brain loses less and less of it abilities, Including memory, mental speed, understanding, judgement, language. The care home has different extents of people with dementia, some only forgotten memories and others who can no longer talk due to extensive brain loss abilities. People with dementia can become uninterested, have difficulty controlling emotions and also lose social manners. The manager at the care home described one of the qualities of a care assistant as ‘thick skinned’ because in order to carry out the job you need to be aware of the rude and unpleasant things people with the syndrome may say.

Dementia can be diagnosed by brain scans, blood tests accessing the amount of Vitamin B, and mental and physical assessment. The tests can be carried out at the GP; however CT scans have to be done by a specialist.