References
Keeping well with dementia: supporting the person with dementia to function to capacity
Abstract
Nearly a million people are living with dementia in the UK, and less than 65% of them have been formally diagnosed according to the Alzheimer's Society. Dementia exists on a continuum and people can have mild, moderate or severe symptoms. People with dementia are more likely to experience health problems than people of the same age who do not have dementia. Dementia affects the ability to understand and relate to the world and to manage health conditions. This article discusses how to a person with dementia can be helped to maintain health and enjoy the best possible quality of life.
Dementia is a syndrome, a term that is used to describe a group of symptoms. These symptoms affect a person's ability to interpret and perceive the world and to communicate with others. The World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of dementia is:
Dementia is a syndrome—usually of a chronic or progressive nature—in which there is deterioration in cognitive function (ie the ability to process thought) beyond what might be expected from normal ageing. It affects memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language and judgement. Consciousness is not affected. The impairment in cognitive function is commonly accompanied, and occasionally preceded, by deterioration in emotional control, social behaviour or motivation.
In the UK, more than 9 82 000 people are living with dementia (Alzheimer's Society, 2024a). Most people living with this illness are aged 65 years and over and have late onset dementia. Research indicates that over half of these patients have mild dementia, around a third have moderate dementia and an eighth have severe dementia (Prince et al, 2014; Wittenberg et al, 2019) (Figure 1).
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