Quality of Life of Spouses Caring for Loved Ones with Dementia

Caregivers play a crucial role in the care of dementia patients. Providing care for dementia patients results in stress related health impacts to the caregiver. The caregivers go through a journey with the dementia patient and need a strong support system. The best approach to dementia care is for health care providers to provide information to and monitor the caregiver, in addition to the dementia patient, encourage the caregiver to take care of themselves, to seek support, and to work as a team to provide the best care for the dementia patient.

The findings from the research in India of dementia caregiver strain clarify the impact of dementia on caregivers by comparing economic and psychological status and perceived strain with those of co-residents of older persons from the control groups free of dementia and of caregivers and co-residents of an older person with moderately severe depression. In Goa, dementia and depression cases were by vignettes, whereas, in Chennai, it was recruited from a hospital outpatient department. Caregiver mental health was assessed using the general health questionnaire. During research, Caregivers of people with dementia spend significantly longer providing care than did caregivers and co-residents of depressed person and controls. The highest proportion

A nonsystematic study reviewed previous research and noted the importance of assisting caregivers as there are nearly four million adult caregivers nationwide.7 Researchers from the School of Nursing in Michigan gave insight about the issues faced by caregivers, and how to better meet their caregiving needs. Legislation review and five meta-analyses were conducted in order to see the many implications caregivers face as well offer ways to help them. National data showed these caregivers estimate an average of 8.3 hours a day providing care near 13.7 months. 5 Along with innumerable physical changes, sleep disturbances, and changes financial well-being, psychological impairment and moods disturbance were a great topic of research. In several

Caregivers are a vital part of the care team for clients with AD because as disease causes a continuous decline in the clients physical and cognitive ability, the clients with AD require more care and assistance (Edwards, 2015). Caregiver burden is the emotionally and physically taxing experience of caring for a person with a disease, like AD, on the caregiver, by looking at aspects of the care process such as how long it takes for the caregiver to assist the client with completing activities of daily living. Several studies addressed caregiver burden by looking at how interventions, intended to lessen caregiver burden, helped reduce caregiver burden for caregivers of clients with AD. For example, in one RCT study by DiZazzo-Miller et al. (2017) the intervention called the Family Caregiver Training Program (FCTP) was used to educate caregivers on activities of daily living in hopes of lessening caregiver burden. In another RCT study by Gitlin et al. (2018), the intervention called Tailored Activity Program (TAP-VA) was used with veterans with dementia and their caregivers by tailoring the home-based activities to what the client and caregiver enjoyed to hopefully lessen the emotional burden for both the client and caregiver. In both RCT studies, the researchers found that the

One of the advantages by placing a parent with Alzheimer’s in a care facility, aside from the fact they are very experienced, is the family can still be very involved in the care of their loved one. Mannion (2008) explained that many of the times family help assist in the care of their parent in the early stages of the disease and will continue to care for them while their parent is in a care facility, which averages approximately nine hours a week. Children tend to feel the need to provide care for their parent with Alzheimer’s, but can have negative side effects. One may feel cut off from social activities and may become depressed, anxious or develop anger from caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s. Every loving, caring child needs to take a break from time to time when caring for their loved one, and respite care (temporary caregiver) is a wonderful way to achieve the needed time away (p.28). Caregiving, regardless of whether it’s the parent’s child or in a care facility, can be very difficult physically on an individual, especially in the late stages when they need a great deal of assistance in bathing, dressing, and moving from one place to another. Whoever the caregiver is, there are many services the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America can help with, such as finding support groups as well as social workers available for counseling to help caregivers caring for those with Alzheimer’s. Being a caregiver is a tremendous responsibility for an individual. Mannion stated “the wellbeing of a person with Alzheimer’s depends directly on the wellbeing of the person who is providing their care”

In this cross-sectional study, Oken, Fonareva, and Wahbeh try to figure out whether the stress of taking care of dementia patients can produce cognitive dysfunction. This study adopted a quantitative method to assess the relationship between cognitive function and dementia caregiving.

Alzheimer’s disease is a very common disease in the older generations (Dominguez-Prieto el al., 2017).

Long-term caregiving of loved ones can take a toll on some individuals, including an emotional, financial, and physical toll. Examples of the emotional toll caregiving can have on an individual is frustration, guilt, sadness, and anxiety. They might feel guilty that they cannot do a better job of caring or get frustrated with their loved one who wanders off due to their dementia (Caregiver stress, 2012). Another example of an emotional toll is the caregiver neglecting to take care of him or her

Regarding participants and recruitment procedure, the article proposes that 65 primary caregivers were recruited from three community-dwellings. Among them, 27 caregivers were from a university-affiliated dementia clinic, 25 from a local Alzheimer’s association, and 13 from the community. The inclusion criteria show that family caregivers who provide daily living assistance or instruction to an older

Alzheimer’s affects roughly 1.5% of Americans age 65 and older and is the most common type of

Dementia becomes very severe so that it impairs a person’s ability to work and perform common tasks in the home. The current solution is to have a caretaker, a caretaker is the family member or friend who gives the most help like personal care, instrumental daily activities, or health-related decisions. Caretakers find assisting with certain activities to be mainly disappointing and uncomfortable as it necessitates invasion of privacy and role reversal. Caretaker is also responsible for

An increase in awareness of the needs of an aging population was authorize by the legislation and the act; section 371 was amended from its original declaration in 1965 (AOA.gov). The act granted assistance to caregivers (those who care for aging individuals, identified as 70 years of age or older) through funding that would support aged love ones and help them to remain in their homes as long as possible (AOA.gov). Through research, the National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) suggests caregiver’s experience a physical, emotional and financial toll while caring for the elderly.

This research report will provide a general overview of Alzheimer’s disease. This overview will include background and history of the disease dating back to its discovery by Alois Alzheimer in Germany. It will provide in-depth information on the anatomy and pathophysiology of the disease, specifically on the roles of beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles and on how they progress; what happens as they progress through the brain. Other topics that will be briefly covered include etiology, epidemiology, treatment, and prognosis.

The 1996 National Caregiver Surveyed researched over 1,500 family caregivers and the study has proved that dementia care is different from any other types of family care giving. Providing care to patients with dementia often comes with psychological and physical effects as well as financial effects on the caregiver of a patient with dementia; utilizing natural remedies will help replenish the brain and ease tension and anxiety. There are many different natural remedies that can help cure numerous health issue. Caring for someone with dementia often requires a great deal of time and patience, and it can cause great stress to the caregiver. This illnesses lead to symptoms of serious changes in memory, personality and behavior. For some, it often ends up with the afflicted needing total care, 24 hours per day. This can be emotionally and physically demanding for a family caregiver, a grown child taking care of her/his parent, or a spouse caring for his/her lifelong partner.

Cognitive decline, particularly dementia, remains among the most frightening and baffling effects of aging in humans. Among the spectrum of conditions which are encompassed by the phrase, Alzheimer’s Disease is perhaps the best-known and most prevalent. (NIH Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center)