June 11, 2023
Dementia: A day in the life
Dementia is a broad term covering many different degenerative conditions that affect the brain, resulting in cognitive loss. It is a disease of the brain not unlike heart and lung disease. It is progressive and sadly terminal as the brain deteriorates.
There are many types of dementia. The most common are Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, frontal temporal dementia and Lewy body dementia. While a different part of the brain is affected in each of these, common issues include the inability to manage independence and self-care, difficulty with communication due to loss of speech and understanding language, memory loss (short-term, then long-term), lack of reasoning and good decision-making, safety risks due to vision, mobility changes and poor decision-making during activities such as driving.
With fifty percent of people over the age of 85 having some form of dementia, caregiving has become an important issue for many families. In fact, fifty percent of dementia caregivers care for their parents and ten percent of caregivers are caring for a spouse.
For this reason, St. Ann has teamed up with Aloha for Aging, Inc., to offer “A Day in the Life,” an aging sensitivity simulation, on June 27, 1:30pm. By participating in this short demonstration, you can gain compassion and empathy by understanding the challenges of our loved ones. You do not need to be a caregiver to attend.
For more information and to register please email info@alohatoaging.org.
Linda Walsh, RN
Parish Nurse, Catholic Church of St. Ann
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