Dementia Awareness
What is dementia?
The word dementia is used to describe a group of symptoms. Although dementia is commonly thought of as memory loss, the reality is much more complex, and symptoms between the different forms of dementia can vary a great deal. Dementia symptoms can include memory loss, confusion and mood changes.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, followed by vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementia. It is possible to have more than one of these diseases that cause dementia at the same time. You might hear this called ‘mixed dementia’
About 820,000 people in the UK have dementia. Most are over 65, but over 15,000 under-65s have dementia. Dementia in people under 65 is often called early-onset dementia.
Dementia often develops slowly and is not always obvious in the early stages. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell apart from the usual mild forgetfulness seen in normal ageing.
Alzheimer’s
•Named after Dr Alois Alzheimer, who observed the disease in 1901, Alzheimer’s disease affects about 500,000 people in the UK, and an estimated 35 million worldwide.
Typical symptoms of early Alzheimer’s include:
•Regularly forgetting recent events, names and faces.
•Regularly misplacing items or putting them in odd places.
•Confusion about the time of day.
•Disorientation, especially away from your normal surroundings.
•Getting lost.
•Problems finding the right words.
•Reduced judgement, for example, being unaware of danger.
•Mood or behaviour problems such as apathy, irritability, or losing confidence.
Vascular dementia
Vascular dementia, sometimes called vascular cognitive impairment, describes a group of conditions:
•Stroke-related dementia – including multi-infarct dementia (MID) and post-stroke dementia or single infarct dementia.
•Subcortical vascular dementia – also called Binswanger’s syndrome or disease, small vessel disease-related dementia or lacunar state.
•Vascular dementia can have many different symptoms, depending on which area of the brain is affected:
•Becoming slower in thinking.
•Disorientation, especially away from your normal surroundings.
•Difficulty finding words or using inappropriate words.
•Memory problems like regularly misplacing items or putting them in odd places.
•Becoming more emotional.
•Difficulty walking or a change in the way a person walks.
The first symptoms of vascular dementia can appear gradually or suddenly depending on the cause
The above two are the most common types of dementia within Boldmere Court, however if your loved one has one of the other types please speak to Kerry who would be happy to discuss and explain any concerns or questions you may have.