Dementia is a ‘physical’ disease
It does more than steal the memories of your loved ones – it often causes physical capabilities to shut-down; however, many health providers sometimes reportedly overlook tell-tale ‘physical’ signs of dementia. According to Dr Frank Molnar, an American geriatrician, the lack of understanding about dementia’s physical toll poses a major problem for health providers.
It does more than steal the memories of your loved ones – it often causes physical capabilities to shut-down; however, many health providers sometimes reportedly overlook tell-tale ‘physical’ signs of dementia.
According to Dr Frank Molnar, an American geriatrician, the lack of understanding about dementia’s physical toll poses a major problem for health providers.
“People are experiencing functional declines, but we’re not asking why. They need more and more help in the home, but we’re not asking why,” Dr Molnar says.
His goal is to improve dementia care by training more home-care workers and family doctors to recognise and act on the disease’s warning signs; which may include sudden weight loss or malnutrition, falls, apathy and depression, irritability, sleep disturbances, and agitation and aggression.
Dr Molnar, who recalls how dementia “robbed” his own mother of her ability to remember her daily routine, believes better monitoring of older people with dementia – and those at high risk of developing the disease – will result in fewer seniors “falling through the cracks” of the health care system.
With better training, Dr Molnar claims family doctors and homecare providers could “spot, treat and even prevent” some of the symptoms before they become urgent problems, allowing seniors and their families time to plan orderly transitions to long-term care.
Dr Molnar has spent the past year working with American aged care facilities and organisations to develop a computer tool that will identify some of the “triggers” that can indicate a client might be developing dementia, or already has dementia and needs better management.
