How to do a good job in home care for elderly dementia patients

Editor's note: New forces in popular science, health tips. The Second People's Hospital of Zhumadian City and Zhumadian Daily Newspaper Group jointly launched the health science column "Health Guide", inviting experts familiar with you to tell you about the health knowledge you want to know and jointly create a high-quality and healthy life.

With the acceleration of China's aging process, the number of Alzheimer's patients has gradually increased. Alzheimer's disease has become the fourth largest "health killer" for the elderly after cardiovascular disease, malignant tumors and stroke. Epidemiological surveys have found that the incidence of dementia in the elderly around 65 years old is 3% to 5%, and with age, the incidence gradually increases, and by about 80 years, the incidence rate increases to 20%.

Globally, one person is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease every 3 seconds, and one in every 4 people is Chinese. Dementia is no longer a "patent" for the elderly, and the number of people with dementia at the age of forty or fifty is also increasing year by year.

How to do a good job in home care for elderly dementia patients is particularly important. So how do we do a good job of home care for patients?

Generally, according to the different stages of the lesion of Alzheimer's disease, different nursing methods are adopted.

In the early stage of Alzheimer's disease, the main manifestations are memory loss, physical strength is maintained well, and motor function is basically normal. In this case, patients should be encouraged to participate in more social activities, communicate more with others, promote the recovery of brain function, or inhibit the rate of brain function degradation.

Patients with in-stage dementia should be accompanied mainly, cared for and maintained, to prevent patients from getting lost, and to prevent patients from self-harming or suicidal behavior. It is necessary to actively treat, take care of patients to take medication, prevent excessive medication, and at the same time prevent not taking medicine in the middle, and ensure the regularity of taking medicine.

Patients with advanced dementia should be mainly cared for. In terms of daily life, supervise and help dementia patients to freshen up, eat and defecate daily; clothes are neat and dry, cold and warm are suitable for season, the indoor environment is comfortable, and the air is fresh. Long-term bedridden people should regularly turn over and pat their backs to prevent pressure sores. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen training in thinking, memory, and computing ability. People with language impairments practice and train speaking. Those who have difficulty swallowing or upper limb paralysis and cannot eat automatically should be taken care of by someone to prevent choking and suffocation. People with dysphagia are fed a liquid or semi-liquid diet. Limb paralysis should be regularly massaged, moved joints, in order to prevent joint stiff deformation or muscle atrophy, through rehabilitation exercise, so that gradually restore the ability to live independently, such as living, sitting, walking, etc. When going out or walking, someone should accompany you to prevent getting lost or lost, and you can sew a cloth strip on your clothes and write down your home address and family contact number. Attention should be paid to psychological treatment, and the patient should be more comforted and encouraged mentally, and more concerned about life to maintain a pleasant state of mind. (Zuo Yan)