Exploring Dementia, Mental Health Nursing, and Treatment Strategies

This essay provides an overview of dementia and its implications for mental health nursing. It delves into key themes within the field, discussing the impact of dementia on individuals and their families. The essay examines various treatment interventions, including the use of analgesia for pain management and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for addressing mental health issues associated with dementia. It analyzes the evidence surrounding these interventions, discussing their effectiveness and potential challenges. The essay also explores the role of mental health nurses in providing care and support to individuals with dementia, emphasizing the importance of understanding and addressing the unique needs of this patient population. The discussion covers the challenges of pain management and the application of CBT in alleviating anxiety and depression, common in dementia patients.

Assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Use of analgesia for pain relief...................................................................................................4
Use of CBT.................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Dementia refers to a syndrome which is related with deterioration in memory, behaviour
thinking and performing ability of daily activity. Dementia generally affects older people. It is
normal part of aging worldwide. Dementia generally caused due to damaging of cells. These
damages can interfere between communication with other brain cells. Due to not communicating
normally behaviour thinking and feeling get affected. This is not a specific disease but it can be
demonstrated as impaired ability for thinking remembering and making decision. Dementia
generally relates with mental health illness which is due to causing difficulty in solving multiple
health issues like falls risk, immobility, malnutrition and choking. Mental health nurse can
provide support and look after such type of people with dementia. In this essay, there is
discussion about analysis of key themes and related issues which are identified within the
nursing profession. There is also a valuation of this impact on family and career while helping
person with dementia (Phillips, (2018)).
MAIN BODY
There can be different reason for the cause of dementia within people as a mental health
nursing staff. There is need to identify the reason and cause and related treatment. This can
provide effective delivery of healthcare services and treatment to the patient to get rid of
dementia and related issues. There is need to enable the explore providing better health care
treatment to the patient with dementia. Due to dementia, there are different impact on their daily
activity and life which create the situation of mental illness which is related with forgetting or
something or continuous forgetting and behaving or acting like some another. These are some of
the situation which can create the situation of getting healthcare treatment from mental health
nursing staff. There is no any known cure for dementia. Although, there is use of some
intervention which involves drug and non drug intervention for treating symptoms of dementia.
These can support and improve the quality of life of the patient with dementia. There are also
some recommendation for providing first line treatment for change in behaviour and
psychological system with use of other medications (Blytt, (2018)).
There are different key themes and issues which are identified as related with mental
health nursing which includes forgetting identity, recent situation. Impact of depression, anxiety,
malnutrition, immobility which create the situation for providing care from the mental health

nursing staff. This is the one which is directly related with practice of Mental Health Nursing
which need to provide better and effective health care and treatment to the person with dementia.
There are different intervention or treatment which can provide better improvement in the patient
health which can be used for providing improvement in patient health. There are some of the
intervention which are going to be discussed further (Jones, (2021)).
Use of analgesia for pain relief
There are different reasons due to which people with dementia get over pain relief. There
is the most obvious reason is that, they are not able to tell about the pain they are suffering from.
Additionally, carers and care staff are not able to recognize about the pain within-person with
dementia. Due to nonrecognition, people with dementia are not able to get effective pain relief
due to which there is worsening in health can be observed. There are also some believe that
people with dementia are not able to experience pain due to their ability of losing memory which
they have experience just before. There are some of the cause like pressure, source leg ulcer,
muscle rigidity, constipation, skin tear, stiffening of joints, osteoarthritis etc. are some of the
causes of pain due to which people get experience of pain within their body. There is need to ask
the person directly about their existing pain or care provider should know the patient enough that
can able to determine the presence of pain in the patient or not. There is also need to use some
test tool which can able to assess pain and can help to provide medication and related
intervention (Mkhonto, (2018)).
There is need to provide pain reliever which is generally used as a Paracetamol for the
patient with dementia. There are also some other medication which can used as a pain reliever
which includes antibiotics for treating infection, laxative for constipation. Use of analgesic has
been increased during last decade. Opoid analgesics are having high potential for adverse effect.
While providing the analgesia, there is need to provide proper care and monitoring of the patient
to monitor the risk of adverse effect. There is a necessity to conduct clinical trial for
investigating safety and efficacy of analgesics within people with analgesia.
There is no any strong evidence of working of analgesia within patient with dementia.
This is due to patient in not able to provide the information about the impact of analgesia. This
creates difficult situation to identify and to collect the evidence about working of analgesia that
can provide relief form pain within people with dementia. Due to net able to provide the

information about the working and feeling of pain after getting a analgesia. It is difficult to
conclude about the impact of analgesia on people with dementia (Toots, (2019)).
There is also no any strong evidence about the problematic situation due to consumption
of analgesia. Healthcare professional are not able to identify and observe that there could be a
chance of pain within the patient with dementia. Patient are not able to provide the information
about their pain. In such type of cases, healthcare professional provide a recommended use of
analgesia. This can provide relief from pain to the patient. There is no any confirmation from the
patient about the reduction of pain which create highly difficulty for the healthcare professional
to identify or get the evidence of reduction of pain. But due to higher conjunction of analgesia
can create accumulation of drug within body which can create different negative impact on the
health. This can either be reduced or identify by the health care professional while delivering
healthcare treatment and different assessment techniques (Williams, (2021)).
Due to not having the proper information about the pain within the patient with dementia
which causes difficulty to identify the need for pain killer or use of analgesia. Due to this
healthcare professional need to identify that there is need for the analgesia. They recommend for
normally use of Paracetamol which is highly helpful and mostly recommended for relieving from
the pain in patient with dementia. Due to not having proper evidence of the acting or working of
analgesia within patient with dementia, it can create suspense and some confusion within
healthcare professional for providing a analgesics for relieving from pain (Hahm, (2019)).
Use of CBT
People with dementia often suffer from mental health conditions. Sometimes this
symptoms can lead to create serious consequences. There are different neuropsychiatry condition
which can lead to create difficulty for the patient with dementia to perform their daily activity.
These symptoms can lead to creating stress for their care provider and loved ones. Cognitive
behaviour therapy refers to a talking therapy which have the aim to provide help to people who
have different type of thoughts, behaviour and feelings. This understanding can help to provide
positive changes. CBT doesn't work for everyone but can provide better help to the patient who
are with anxiety and depression along with dementia and related mental health problems. CBT
can help to the people who are in early stage of dementia and suffering from anxiety and
depression. These are most common problem with people who are having dementia. When any
patient is suffering from anxiety and depression, then this is the time to provide the therapy of

CBT. This can help to provide relief from anxiety and depression and provide intervention in
treatment of these mental health related issues. Nursing staff member need to provide this
therapy to the patient who are suffering from dementia. This therapy can provide the long-term
memory intervention than the shorter one. With the help of this therapy, it can provide
interaction with love ones and help to recall the memory of the patient with dementia. Cognitive
behaviour therapy is not only able to improve patients mental well-being but it is also able to
improve the immune system along with reduction in inflammation. There are some of the good
evidence which includes healthy lifestyle like exercising, eating healthy diet, sleeping regularly
which can help to reduce dementia. There is good evidence that anxiety has been reduced with
the help of using CBT but it has been observed that there are different other therapy which have
higher effect on depression. There are different therapy which are highly able to provide better
benefits than CBT therapy (Akande-Sholabi, (2020)).
There is no any evidence that can provide the information that use of CBT can be
problematic. This is the therapy which is generally used for providing better relief from anxiety
and depression to the patient suffering with dementia. This therapy can help and provide them
the ability to recall their memory. This can provide better feeling about their memories which
can able to boost them and get rid from the anxiety and depression. So, it can't be said that use of
CBT can be a problematic for the patient with dementia (McDermott, (2019)).
Cognitive behaviour therapy refers to a type of therapy can provide better relief from
anxiety and depression to the patient was suffering from dementia. There are some good
evidence about the working of CBT which helps provide relief from anxiety. But, there are
different therapy which is highly applicable and helpful in providing relief from anxiety and
depression. There is also no any evidence which can prove that use of CBT can be problematic
for the patient with dementia (Yilmaz, (2020)).
CONCLUSION
From above discussion, it can be concluded that dementia is a health related problem for
which there is need provide care from mental health nursing staff. There are different issues
which are related with mental health nursing practices. There is need for the analysis for
providing care and treatment to the people with dementia. In this essay, there is discussion about
reason for exploring the theme of dementia. There is also discussion about the intervention
which can focus on providing treatment and management of dementia. In this essay, there is also

discussion about the use of analgesia and related evidence about their working and evidence
related negative impact of use of analgesic. There is also discussion about the cognitive
behavioral therapy. There is also discussion about the evidence related with working of CBT
therapy and information related with any issue due to use of CBT.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Akande-Sholabi, (2020). Evaluation of prescription pattern of analgesic use among ambulatory
elderly in South-Western Nigeria. Annals of African Medicine, 19(2), 131.
Blytt, (2018). Effects of pain treatment on sleep in nursing home patients with dementia and
depression: A multicenter placebo‐controlled randomized clinical trial. International
journal of geriatric psychiatry, 33(4), 663-670.
Hahm, (2019). The effect of transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation on pain, muscle strength,
balance, and gait in individuals with dementia: A double blind, pilot randomized
controlled trial. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 29, 100932.
Jones, (2021). Young-onset dementia: meeting the information needs of carers. Mental Health
Practice, 24(3).
McDermott, (2019). Psychosocial interventions for people with dementia: a synthesis of
systematic reviews. Aging & mental health, 23(4), 393-403.
Mkhonto, (2018). When people with dementia are perceived as witches. Consequences for
patients and nurse education in South Africa. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(1-2), e169-
e176.
Phillips, (2018). An observational study of antipsychotic medication use among long‐stay
nursing home residents without qualifying diagnoses. Journal of psychiatric and mental
health nursing, 25(8), 463-474.
Toots, (2019). The effects of exercise on falls in older people with dementia living in nursing
homes: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Directors
Association, 20(7), 835-842.
Williams, (2021). Residential aged care staff awareness of and engagement with dementia‐
specific support services and education. Australasian journal on ageing.
Yilmaz, (2020). The Effect of Doll Therapy on Agitation and Cognitive State in Institutionalized
Patients With Moderate-to-Severe Dementia: A Randomized Controlled Study. Journal
of geriatric psychiatry and neurology, 0891988720933353.