Dementia Case Study Essay

Words: 746
Pages: 3

When Mary first moved into 24hour care healthcare professionals reported Mary was being challenging on interventions becoming verbally hostile towards staff and they found this difficult to manage. Mary was getting up in the early hours of the morning asking if she can make sandwiches, the professionals in the care home was telling her to go back to bed which was causing Mary distress and frustration. Over 90% of individuals who have a diagnosis of dementia experience behavioural symptoms at some point during their illness; there can be a lot of behavioural changes in people living with dementia when they move into a new environment (The Alzheimer’s Society, 2014). There is a lot of evidence which suggests challenging behaviour such as restlessness, …show more content…
Cotelli, (2012) claims using objects can help individuals to recall their past experiences in order to stimulate positive emotion. Thompson, (2011) claims reminiscence therapy may re-emerge an individual’s personality and when engaging in meaningful life story work it enables individuals to build on their strengths they have in terms of their long term memory which provides them with a sense of achievement. The individual in this case used to work in an office as a typewriter, although she could no longer use a typewriter healthcare professionals helped build a memory box for the individual putting in paper, pictures of typewriters and old photos which helped stimulate Mary’s past memories. Nice Guidelines, (2006) claim life story work is very person centred and unique to every individual, it is an intervention that enables professionals to see past the diagnosis of dementia and see the individuality of the individual and their unique personality. However Douglas et al, (2004) argues that reminiscence therapy does not always work effectively in severe dementia due to individuals not being able to engage effectively therefore it is not always an effective intervention it depends of the individual and what stage they are in their dementia. Thompson, (2011) also argues life story work is not always effective if there is a lack of leadership and support for implementation from