The Senior Nursing Officer in-charge of Pediatric ward, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Awka, Anambra, Mrs. Nneka Onwudiwe, has said that dementia is not a death sentence.
Onwudiwe said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Friday.
She called on people to treat demented victims in their homes with care and love, as they were active members of the family.
According to the nursing officer, dementia is a loss of mental ability which affects daily activities of a person.
She also described it as a loss of cognitive functioning, such as thinking, remembering and reasoning that interfere with a person’s daily life.
Onwudiwe said dementia, such as alzheimer’s disease, could be caused by damage in the brain, adding that vascular dementia occurred in people with high blood pressure.
She also listed stroke, severe hardening of the arteries, Parkinson’s disease, lewy body, huntington’s disease, fronoto temporal, normal pressure dementia and mild cognitive impairment as other types of dementia in people.
The risk factors, according to Onwudiwe, are: age, family history, smoking, alcohol, arteriosclerosis, building up of fatty substance as well as cholesterols which interfere with blood flow to brain and people with diabetes.
Onwudiwe listed the common symptoms as memory loss, difficulty in communicating or finding words and spatial abilities, such as getting lost while driving.
“We can watch over our loved ones as they exhibit actions that call for special attention.
“If taken to hospital on time, it can save lots of discomfort in caring for the patients as well as monetary involvement,” she said.
Onwudiwe said dementia could be treated with drugs that could help to slow it down and improve mental functions, mood or behaviour of the affected person.
She said occupational therapists, who could show the affected persons how to make their homes safer and prevent occurrences of accidents, should be involved.
“Reduction of noisy environment to help the person focus and function well by modifying the area, maintaining eye contact while speaking with the person and engaging the person with minor works to make him/her feel wanted can also be helpful,” Onwudiwe said.
Dementia not a death sentence/ (NAN)
