Preeti Jhawar

IMPACT OF CARING PROCESS FOR DEMENTIA PATIENTS ON THEIR CARERS IN LEWISHAM CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Dementia is identified as a progressive disorder who suffer from a neurological disturbance and lose the probability to stay independently without anyone’s assistance. Along with this, the majority of these patients live with their family members, are managed in a situation where they can escalate their identified demands and are being provided with the required care by the caregivers. Caring for a geriatric patient who is suffering from dementia is a critical challenge as it involves physical, emotional, financial and social life burden. This is further identified as a highly challenging task that involves immense learning (Challis, et al., 2016). The caregivers of dementia patients usually experience several types of emotional problems during their illness and one of these problems includes depression that is often overlooked and is not cared about. Further, it is known that the caregivers who are patient’s family members are often suffering from more depression and anxiety symptoms as compared to the non-caregivers of the same gender and age (Knapp, et al., 2016). Research reports that the caregivers of patients suffering from dementia suffer from emotional stress and depression more than the caregivers of non-demented patients. Further, the prevalence rate for symptoms of depression is known to range between 28% to 55%. BACKGROUND TO THE PROBLEM The following essay presents research on the impact of the caring process for dementia patients on their cares in Lewisham, United Kingdom. The first research that highlighted the burden of providing care to a dementia patient was highlighted by Zarit and his colleagues in the year 1980. After this study, there were numerous studies which have collectively proved immense growth in the research aspect, thereby focusing on ill-effects of care provision on their carers as well as the interventions for reducing or controlling these effects (Mueller, et al., 2018). Along with this, the stress which the carers experience is a problem of national health concern due to their central role in caring for dementia patients. This topic gains importance as there has been a significant increase in the count of dementia patients across the globe. Caring for a patient having dementia can have its own consequences and may impact the physical and mental health of the patient. In the UK, about 5% of the individuals over the age of 60 years and 20% of the patients over the age of 80 years and above are suffering from dementia. Further, it is predicted that the count of individuals suffering from dementia will increase by 40% by 2026 and will double the current figure by 2050. The increase in the demand of life care for dementia patients is associated with financial, physical, and emotional costs and for improving the quality of the treatment the cares must support and sacrifice to all their extent (Rowen, et al., 2015). During this care, the carers face several clinical challenges along with ethical problems in delivering appropriate assistance to the dementia patient. With the help of this research, we will be able to identify the factors that are majorly responsible for causing depression to a caregiver along with the cultural, ethnic, gender differences and financial burden for the family members while trying to ensure best care plan for the patient. REFERENCES Challis, D., Sutcliffe, C., Hughes, J., Von Abendorff, R., Brown, P. and Chesterman, J., 2016. Supporting people with dementia at home: Challenges and opportunities for the 21st century. Routledge. Knapp, M., Chua, K.C., Broadbent, M., Chang, C.K., Fernandez, J.L., Milea, D., Romeo, R., Lovestone, S., Spencer, M., Thompson, G. and Stewart, R., 2016. Predictors of care home and hospital admissions and their costs for older people with Alzheimer's disease: findings from a large London case register. BMJ open, 6(11), p.e013591. Mueller, C., Perera, G., Rajkumar, A.P., Bhattarai, M., Price, A., O'Brien, J.T., Ballard, C., Stewart, R. and Aarsland, D., 2018. Hospitalization in people with dementia with Lewy bodies: Frequency, duration, and cost implications. Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, 10, pp.143-152. Rowen, D., Mulhern, B., Banerjee, S., Tait, R., Watchurst, C., Smith, S.C., Young, T.A., Knapp, M. and Brazier, J.E., 2015. Comparison of general population, patient, and carer utility values for dementia health states. Medical Decision Making, 35(1), pp.68-80.