Treatment for Dementia - Research Paper

Introduction

Dementia is a disorder that is defined by a continuous loss of intellectual functions which requires a lot of support daily. Currently, there is no cure for dementia and the interventions from experts can only postpone the advancement of the effects of the disorder. Primary care systems, who are responsible for providing care to dementia victims have been receiving a lot of obstacles in their quest to offer the help (Achterberg et al.,1471). In most cases, the symptoms of dementia are hardly predictable by the primary care systems which makes it hard to diagnose and it leads to inadequate treatment in the long run. Notably, ensuring that the health care is enhanced calls for extra support in terms of resources like sufficient diagnosis process, provision of dementia experts, care managers, and financial support.

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According to the examination conducted by Boustani et al. (575), most of the dementia victims get their health care from the primary care system. The study found that 2% of the prevalence rates are witnessed in patients aged 65-69 years, 7% in 70-79 years old while those who are over 80 years affected with 17% rate. As a result of the disorder, the patients develop opportunistic diseases and they experience several medical chronic conditions and they get treated with psychotropic medications such as anticholinergics (Boustani et al.,576). Thus, the individuals start exhibiting clinical behaviors psychological symptoms. This means that a lot of attention and finances have to be directed into the treatment and those who cannot afford the bills will eventually not get the care needed. Furthermore, the financial burden affects the patients and the caregivers who may not know how to handle the situation when the health of the patient deteriorates.

The health facilities have been accused of facilitating the health risk among patients who are suffering from dementia because the staff has been unable to diagnose the disease early enough. The move has increase inefficiency when it comes to treatment since a lot of resources like finances will be required to manage the situation at the time of diagnosis as the situation may have worsened. Dementia severely affects the patients as well as the family members (Wang et al.,990). The effects include behavioral and psychological difficulties, escalated medical problems and multiple medical management issues which can deteriorate the health and treatment care offered. On the other hand, dementia can impact negatively on the family caregivers who can potentially develop conditions like sleep disorder, depression, anxiety, and fatigue.

The greatest cost-driver in dementia patients is the prolonged institutional care and the social aspect of the informal care. Studies show that, for a long time, the society has concentrated on wrong costs. Since the dementia is not curable with treatment, massive costs can be accounted to the resources that get used to managing the effects as opposed to the funds used in postponing the appearance of the disease (Kelly et al.,724). Dementia triggers negative effects on the body which can interfere with the normal functions on a daily basis. The effects associated with the condition include; reduced hygiene, problems in taking medication, depression, poor nutrition, anxiety and long-term memory loss. Therefore, many patients will spend their resources on managing the effects and neglect the treatment to delay the disorder.

Dementia is one of the diseases that has mostly affected the old individual, however in some cases, it has developed in an earlier age. Basically, the overall risk to the development of dementia increases after the general age of sixty-five years. It has been recognized by many as a serious disease that exalts a very heavy mental, emotional, financial and physical tool on patients and their immediate families.in most of the countries the current treatments have been perceived to be lacking and in the United Kingdom, Dementia has developed into one of the serious and growing health challenges in the entire United Kingdom.

Currently, the United Kingdom has held a total population of over 680000 individuals who are currently living with dementia (Reyniers, 165-170). Basically, the cost incurred in taking care of individuals with dementia to the United Kingdom economy is identified to be more than nineteen billion pounds every given year. As result over half a million carers have been put in place to take care of individuals who are suffering from dementia, however, this is still not enough. According to the most killer diseases, Dementia is identified as one of the tenth greatest killers in the United Kingdom which is accounting for over 20 billion pounds in every given year (Reyniers, 165-170). Additionally, statistics are very clear that over 2.6 percent of annual death is as a result of dementia. Notably, half of the total population of those living with dementia in the United Kingdom are not having formal dementia contact or diagnosis with specialist dementia services. In the United Kingdom, individuals with dementia are identified to be occupying 25 percent of all the hospital beds and the general behavior of the patients is that they are more likely to be admitted to the hospitals (Reyniers, 165-170). Additionally, a quarter of residents of care homes are also identified to be suffering from dementia. From the general statistics in the United Kingdom and the United States in general, individuals with dementia are living in care facilities while two third of the remaining population with dementia are living at home.

Since most of the individuals who are suffering from dementia require long-term care, it is important to note that treatment of dementia is always inadequate. in most cases individuals with dementia are always treated by caregivers at residential facilities or at home, however, managing the population of the caregivers is not enough to sustain the general population (Jackson,77). The entire experience of offering treatment and care to dementia patients have a serious impact on the caregiver's quality of life with carers facing great challenges in offering care to the dementia patients.

The treatment for dementia is currently inadequate since the financial impacts of taking care of individuals with dementia have also contributed to poor mental health for most of the care providers. On the other hand, lack of enough training and support for caregivers in terms of handling dementias patients is actually a greater problem that has a great negative impact on the life of patients and family in general. Many efforts need to be put in place so as to support the caregiver 's quality of life and to motivate them to take care of individuals who are suffering from dementia.

Another lead cause in inadequacy treatment of dementia is the fact that it can take up to a decade to for the clinical symptoms to start manifesting in patients. Many patients receive treatment that is not intended for their condition making their bodies to form resistance to other medications. The heterogeneity nature of dementia disorder enhances the slow detection rate among patients and when it is finally diagnosed, the treatment is highly likely to fail (Benussi et al.,171). As a result, the health is prone to decline to live the patient vulnerable to other opportunistic diseases and the caregivers will be devastated. Moreover, the efforts by the medical practitioners have been derailed due to the nature of the disease and no substantial cure has been found as of now.

Furthermore, the high costs of care managers, dementia experts, and the medications affect the quality of treatment that is received by the dementia victims. The management of dementia requires well-trained clinicians who are specialized in dementia care and can deal with the patients appropriately. Furthermore, the dementia specialists should be available to attend to the patient's needs and provide directions on which actions to take. Also, community resources should be reachable to offer quality care to patients (Hurd et al., p.1328). However, this is contrary to how patients with the disease get their treatment and care. The requirements are costly and most healthcare facilities are unable to provide quality services leading to deteriorating state of patients as the disorder continues to manifest to dangerous stages.

Conclusion

Over time, the treatment and management of dementia patients are facing difficulties which have been seen as lacking in health care delivery in health facilities. Reforms should be made in the healthcare system to integrate strategies that will deal with the cost and quality treatment issues in question. The caregivers should be supported financially to ensure they are able to cope with the pressure associated with dementia (Huang et al.,696). Moreover, the patients should be encouraged to take their medications on a daily basis as well as being encouraged to live a positive life each passing day.

Works Cited

Achterberg, Wilco P., et al. "Pain management in patients with dementia." Clinical interventions in aging 8 (2013): 1471.

Benussi, Alberto, Alessandro Padovani, and Barbara Borroni. "Phenotypic heterogeneity of monogenic frontotemporal dementia." Frontiers in aging neuroscience 7 (2015): 171.

Boustani, Malaz, et al. "Implementing a screening and diagnosis program for dementia in primary care." Journal of general internal medicine 20.7 (2005): 572-577.

Jackson, Thomas A., et al. "Challenges and opportunities in understanding dementia and delirium in the acute hospital." PLoS medicine 14.3 (2017): e1002247.

Huang, Mei-Feng, et al. "Coping strategy and caregiver burden among caregivers of patients with dementia." American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias 30.7 (2015): 694-698.

Hurd, Michael D., et al. "Monetary costs of dementia in the United States." New England Journal of Medicine 368.14 (2013): 1326-1334.

Reyniers, Thijs, et al. "International variation in place of death of older people who died from dementia in 14 European and non-European countries." Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 16.2 (2015): 165-171.

Kelley, Amy S., et al. "The burden of health care costs for patients with dementia in the last 5 years of life." Annals of internal medicine 163.10 (2015): 729-736.

Wang, Jing, et al. "Factors contributing to caregiver burden in dementia in a country without formal caregiver support." Aging & mental health 18.8 (2014): 986-996.