Dementia. Caring for Patients With Extreme Dementia

DEMENTIA
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Caring for Patients With Extreme Dementia
A person in the latter stages of dementia needs palliative care. The goal is to make the patient’s life as comfortable as possible and possibly for the longest time. As the health of the patient deteriorates, the caregivers have to modify their approaches to realize the primary health goal continually. 
The expected status of a dementia patient in the last stage of the disease is often characterized by urinary incontinence, eating problems, complete memory loss, low immunity hence susceptible to microbial attacks, difficulty in communication with very few intelligible words, poor memory among others CITATION Pet152 \l 1033 (Rabins, 2015). The cumulative impact of these symptoms makes the patient bed-ridden and highly dependable. Hence, comprehensive palliative care designed for such a patient must be centered on a patient with the afore-described symptoms.
First, if the patient is at home, it is necessary to find a good bed, preferably a hospital bed which has multiple adjustment features to help provide relative comfort for the patient especially if he/she is bed-ridden. The mattress ought to be soft (like air mattress) to reduce the likelihood of developing pressure sores. Regular turning of the patient on the bed is also important for more relative comfort CITATION Sus181 \l 1033 (Mitchell, 2018). If he/she can use wheelchairs, then they need to be availed to aid the patient in movement. Thus, the caretakers can be assisted by availing this equipment that is necessary for the patient.
The caregivers ought to be trained in how to handle the patient and provide the best care. First, they ought to be trained on how to address issues of urinary incontinence. Urinary incontinence coupled with being bed-ridden ...