DEMENTIA CARE Spot the Signs
Stewart Mcginn, Managing Director at Baycroſt Care Homes, identifies the early indicators of Alzheimer’s disease and the next steps to take in order to provide the correct help that a person living with dementia will need.
Around 900,000 people are currently living with dementia in the UK, with the figure expected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.
As the majority of dementia cases (95%) are a result of Alzheimer’s disease, a neurological disorder which causes parts of the brain to shrink, a number of symptoms will oſten be present – and it’s essential to be aware of these early indicators.
CONTINUOUSLY MISPLACING THINGS
Anyone can forget where they put their keys on the odd occasion, but if someone finds they are regularly misplacing items, it could be an early sign of dementia. For example, this could be continuously losing their glasses or finding items in strange places, like a TV remote in the fridge or food items in with the cleaning products.
DIFFICULTY FOCUSING
Those in the early stages of dementia can oſten struggle to concentrate or focus on tasks that require organisation and planning. That’s because Alzheimer’s disease, which causes
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dementia, affects the hippocampus, which controls new learning and memories. With this being disrupted, it can be much harder to concentrate.
PROBLEMS WITH LANGUAGE A sign that can indicate a person has dementia is having
difficulty forming sentences or finding the right words during conversations. Whilst everyone can forget the odd word from time to time, regularly struggling to remember words or substituting them in sentences with random words can indicate someone has the condition.
MEMORY LOSS
One of the most noticeable and alarming signs that a person could be showing early signs of dementia is recurring memory loss. In particular, this could mean forgetting less significant pieces of information – which are also perhaps harder to spot. Some examples of this could include re-reading the newspaper, re-telling stories, or forgetting an acquaintance's name.
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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