Consideration Psychological Factors

Awareness for Dementia

At my workplace, I was entrusted to care for a patient named J who had moderate Dementia is showing symptoms of difficulty in communicating and hindrance in executing complex tasks. These symptoms had lead J to develop certain psychological changes such as negative emotion (anxiety, depression) and inappropriate behaviour. The name Patient J is being used to ensure confidentiality of the patient as it helped to avoid revealing his identity which is instructed to be followed by the nurses as per NMC Code of Practice (www.nmc.org.uk, 2015).

In the study of Hamdy et al. (2017), hallucinations in dementia patients lead them to be anxious which affects their treatment procedure. This is because hallucinations lead individuals to lose proper perception of the reality which makes them anxious in turn leading them to show inappropriate behaviour that interferes with providing effective care intervention to the patient. Moreover, dementia patients often experience social isolation and seen as a burden of care which leads the patient to get depressed out of the feeling of neglect and diseased state (Greenwood et al. 2018). This makes the patient show unnecessary resistance in accessing care resulting in their deteriorated mental health condition. Thus, for effective care delivery without resistance from patients and ensure positive health condition of dementia patients like J the individual is to be provided proper psychological and physical well-being.

In order to provide effective care to J and patients like them suffering from moderate dementia, the well-being booklet is being framed. This is because well-being booklet provides brief information about sign and symptoms regarding dementia along with the way dementia patients are to be treated and offered care to ensure their positive health development. Thus, by using the well-being booklet the health professionals would be able to have basic information about the way to identify patients with dementia and the process of offering them care and well-being activities for positive health condition. The well-being of the patients are the fundamental needs to be fulfilled for allowing them to effectively overcome health difficulties and achieve healthy living. The well-being of a person is mainly linked to their physical, social and psychological factors (Algar et al. 2016). Thus, the health professionals to ensure the well-being of the dementia patients needs to consider the factors while offering care.

The PERMA model and the Five ways to Well-being are the most effective model to be used for improving health as well as the well-being of the patient. In this practice, the PREMA model is to be used for patient J to ensure his positive psychological health that is being disrupted due to dementia. The Five ways of Well-being informs the health professionals regarding the way psychological health of the patients can be improved to ensure their well-being (www.mentalhealthireland.ie, 2018). However, the PREMA model informs about the key building blocks which are to be considered to improve the psychological health of the patients for ensuring their well-being (Lopes, 2017). Since all the patients are do not have similar psychological issues, thus the specific five ways of delivering well-being services may not be effective for all nature of individuals to improve their mental health. However, knowledge regarding the building blocks based on which ways of well-being is to be chosen provides opportunity to the health professional to adjust specific ways in which individuals are to be offered care regarding mental health. Thus, the PERMA model is being used instead of Five ways of Well-being model as it helps the health professional to determine which ways of offering services based on the mentioned building blocks of mental health would be significant for improved health of patient J.

Patient J is seen to over 70 year old male who is living a sedentary lifestyle with little communication with the society or access to care assistance from family and friends to help him cope with dementia. This has led patient J, as well as his mental health condition of dementia; lead him to experience various social and psychological issues that have negatively influenced his well-being. The PERMA model stands for positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and achievement which are key important factors to be considered for ensuring the well-being of the individuals (Peacock et al. 2017). As mentioned by Hua et al. (2018), development of positive emotions in dementia patients leads them to be happier in life and develop openness to accept the disease. This is required as with openness the patients are able to accept their health condition without worrying, in turn, provides positive responses and less resistance to accept healthcare intervention required for them. Thus, to develop positive emotions in J he is to be asked to identify at least one positive event each day and is to be informed about his strengths that he can use to overcome the disease.

The engagement of the dementia patient in their care and activities are important as it leads health professionals to identify their key needs as well as empowers them in taking their own care (Cohen-Mansfield et al. 2017). This is required as patient engagement makes the patient feel occupied in their life and leads them release their decision are valued. In order to engage patient J to ensure his well-being, he is to be asked regarding the nature of care he demands and is to be empowered in making effective communication through sign languages as well as perform his daily activities without assistance from others. The barrier to be experienced while ensuring the well-being of J is making him empowered to get engaged in executing his own activities. This is because it is reported that he is already facing difficulty with perform complex daily activities. However, the barrier is to be limited by provide training to J regarding the way to use assistive technology in performing complex everyday task to ensure his effective engagement for well-being. This is because assistive technology is the rehabilitative and adaptive devices which helps mentally people be effective to perform complex activities without being burden of care on others and ensures their engagement, in turn, assuring patient well-being (Ienca et al. 2017).

The possible outcome of the use of the PERMA model for patient J is that he would be able to emotionally cope with complexities and hindrances faced as a result of dementia. Moreover, he would be able to engage himself for taking his own care without being a burden on others and participate in making healthcare decisions. These are going to make J feel empowered and satisfied ensuring his mental well-being.

Continue your journey with our comprehensive guide to Consequences Necessity Cuts.

References

• Algar, K., Woods, R.T. and Windle, G., 2016. Measuring the quality of life and well-being of people with dementia: A review of observational measures. Dementia, 15(4), pp.832-857.
• Cohen-Mansfield, J., Hai, T. and Comishen, M., 2017. Group engagement in persons with dementia: the concept and its measurement. Psychiatry research, 251, pp.237-243.
• Greenwood, N., Mezey, G. and Smith, R., 2018. Social exclusion in adult informal carers: A systematic narrative review of the experiences of informal carers of people with dementia and mental illness. Maturitas, 112, pp.39-45.
• Hamdy, R.C., Kinser, A., Lewis, J.V., Copeland, R., Depelteau, A., Kendall-Wilson, T. and Whalen, K., 2017. Hallucinations Are Real to Patients With Dementia. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 3, p.2333721417721108.
• Hua, A.Y., Sible, I.J., Perry, D.C., Rankin, K.P., Kramer, J.H., Miller, B.L., Rosen, H.J. and Sturm, V.E., 2018. Enhanced Positive Emotional Reactivity Undermines Empathy in Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia. Frontiers in neurology, 9, p.402.
• Ienca, M., Fabrice, J., Elger, B., Caon, M., Pappagallo, A.S., Kressig, R.W. and Wangmo, T., 2017. Intelligent assistive technology for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias: a systematic review. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 56(4), pp.1301-1340.
• Lopes, T.S., 2017. REMINISCENCE THERAPY EFFECTS IN OLDER PERSONS WITH MILD DEMENTIA. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 13(7), p.P1412.
• Peacock, S., Danger, S. and Nicol, J., 2017. ‘THE MUSIC IS STILL THERE’: HEARING FROM INDIVIDUALS WITH DEMENTIA WHO SING TOGETHER. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 13(7), pp.P1411-P1412.
• www.mentalhealthireland.ie 2018, Five Ways to Wellbeing, Available at: [Accessed on: 13 May 2019]
• www.nmc.org.uk 2015, Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives and nursing associates, Available at: [Accessed on: 13 May 2019]