Mental Health - Dementia Case Study Assignment

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT- CASE STUDY 4
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MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Dementia is a syndrome that is used for discussing various symptoms that involve a
decline in cognition. Specifically forgetfulness. It is caused due to a number of an underlying
disorder and brain dysfunctioning. Livingston et al. (2017) opined that dementia is not a
single disorder; it is a collaborative term that is used for relating symptoms of diminishing
level of memory, cognitive thinking ability and communication. It can be caused due to the
death of brain cells, neurodegenerative disorder or unknown factors that are still under
research. The case of Myra involves Alzheimer’s dementia, who is 83 years old living in
residential care. Dementia is categorised as a Neurocognitive Disorder (NCD) in the
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). The category of NCD
incorporates a complex group of diseases that involve deficit in the primary clinical signs
such as cognitive function and impairment. Another major diagnostic guideline is the
International Classification of Diseases (ICD) that was published by the World Health
Organisation (Alz.co.uk 2019). It is similar to DSM-5 and involves neurodevelopment
disorders. According to the condition observed in Myra, it can be seen that she was suffering
from an advanced level of dementia, where she was found wandering 3 miles away from her
houses in her nightdress and slippers in the early morning two years ago. The aim of the
essay is to critically evaluate the case study of Myra and the disease aced by her in order to
formulate an evidence-based intervention for her.
Myra is an older woman having Alzheimer’s dementia and thus, it is important to
formulate an evidence-based intervention that will help her in improving or managing the
condition to a controllable level. After gaining a thorough understanding of Myra’s case, it
can be stated that the onset of the disorder occurred two years ago when she forgets her
address. She exhibited symptoms of confusion and clarity and became more depressed when
she realised her condition. This lead to limited engagement in activities she liked. The last
two weeks were significant distressing for him because her mobility became poor and she had

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MENTAL HEALTH CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENT
fallen a number of times. She had periodic incontinent and thus, found to be on residential
home all the time. The evaluation of her case led to the inference that due to her disease,
Alzheimer’s dementia she felt helpless and worthless. She is not able to cope up with the
stress and the age factor have worsened the situation affecting her movement and social life.
Duff (2018) opined that the NICE guideline for dementia includes diagnosing and
management of the diseases and aims to enhance the care process by making
recommendations on staffs and carers to support the person. As found Myra do not have
anyone to help her in daily routine because she lives alone. Her husband, Sydney, died ten
years ago and contacted with her children, Trevor and Jean are limited as her condition was
slowly progressing. Therefore, according to NICE, the interventions need to promote her
independence, cognition and wellbeing. This may involve a range of activities that would
support in enhancing the wellbeing as per her preference, offer stimulation therapy such as
solving word puzzle and crosswords that is considered as a process of sharping mind (Moyle
et al. 2017). In her early days, she used to enjoy solving these puzzles; thus; promoting
activities that she had interest would be stated to be optimal in this case. She used to love
meeting people and had an active social life; thus, focusing on this aspect, group
reminiscence therapy or interpersonal therapy can be applied to treat her. However, it needs
to be taken into consideration that the use of non-invasive brain stimulation should not be
used as it may deteriorate the condition. The model that can be used in this particular case for
assessing the situation and offer effective care was Biopsychosocial model that involves a
multidisciplinary approach that connects the biological, social and psychology environmental
factors to address the issue thus, promoting human development. According to Revolta,
Orrell and Spector (2016), this model is a tool that helps in motivating the staffs to develop a
personalised treatment and response plan based on the need and demand of the patient. The
prevalence of dementia is found to be rising and it can be seen that 60% of all cases were