NUR329 Health Promotion Project: Dementia Prevention and Management

This health promotion project addresses dementia, a brain disorder affecting memory and daily life activities. It highlights the benefits of health promotion campaigns in Australia, focusing on medication adherence, alcoholism prevention, and balanced diets. The target group includes adults, particularly those over 80, with a focus on preventing behaviors that lead to dementia and promoting communication and engagement. The project outlines primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention measures, involving stakeholders like nurses and physicians. Activities include advertising through banners and social media, with evaluation through health records, interviews, and questionnaires. The project aims to improve the lives of individuals affected by dementia through awareness and support.

References
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Target group for health promotion
• According to the Australian bureau of statistics,
there are 400,000 people affected with dementia and
within that more than 55% are women.
• Further it was observed that people with age 80 and
above are mostly affected with dementia and its
several types.
• Therefore , this age group was chosen for dementia
related public health campaigns.
• This health promotion is going to focus on teaching
the adult people on how to deal with the problem
(Vickland et al., 2012)
What is dementia?
Dementia is a brain disorder with broader aspect which
results in a long term and gradual decrease in the affected
person’s ability to remember things and thereby affects
the activities of daily life (Cerejeira, Lagarto &
Mukaetova-Ladinska, 2012).
The symptoms of dementia includes difficulties in
finding words, memory loss, impaired judgment, and the
most difficult is the hurdles in activities of daily life that
occurs due to the damaged neurons (Nordgren &
Engström, 2014).
Benefits of the health promotion
•There are several benefits of the health promotion
camp on Australian population affected with
dementia.
•There are evidences that dementia let people take
drug overdoses that affect their health. Hence,
health promotion can direct them towards good
medication practice.
•Further, through this campaign, the patient will
learn the importance of taking the drugs as
prescribed. Another important thing is the diet of
the patient (Korda & Itani, 2013).
•Health promotion campaign will educate people on
the importance of maintaining the balanced diet to
the dementia affected people.
•It was observed that the patients usually feel
isolated from the family. This health promotional;
campaign will focus on engagement of the patients
through communication, whether to their family
member or the nurse.
•The awareness about dementia will teach about the
unmet needs and the reason why it is vital to meet
the desired requirements. In other parts of the
promotion, it will tell the Australian community on
the possible cause of dementia (Nordgren &
Engström, 2014).
Health promotional goals
• To stop the behaviours that may lead people to
dementia. For instance, the practice of smoking
that affects the brain cells.
• Habit of alcoholism should also be targeted for
dementia affected people as accident caused by
over drinking crushes the brain cell leading to
dementia.
• To create a communication between individuals
in society.
• the other goal is ensuring that the young
members of the society also take care of
themselves to avoid attack by dementia
Preventive management
the prevention and management measures were divided
into primary, secondary and tertiary standards.
The four fundamental ways in which this health
promotion exercise were targeted, includes the following
methods:
1. Setting up health centers for people who have
dementia only
2. Organising training seminars for the nurses.
3. Creating awareness to the affected families on
possible behavioural change on the patient and how
to handle the changes in the patient
4. Going to the radio station to educate the members of
the society on the importance of promoting and
supporting people with dementia
Stakeholders and community consultation
involved
The fight against dementia is incomplete without the
discussion with other important stakeholders in the
society
These people were the nurses and physicians who were
involved in the session.
The role of these nurses was to promote excellent
communication skills to the patients and their families
involved. They also help in recommending the best
exercises and diet for the people who have dementia
(Neville & Cole, 2013).
YOUR HEALTH, YOUR FUTURE
Name of the presenters, name of the module
Health promotion activity and
evaluation
The activities involved advertising the campaign through
banners posters on the streets and over social media. for
example: creating a WhatsApp and Face book group where
people share ideas on how to improve and fight the disease
in the community. Further with this campaign and message
the target of helping people with dementia was targeted to
achieve (Gold et al., 2012).
Evaluation was also important to check the effectiveness of
the message spread through healthcare campaign. With the
help of continuous health records in the set health centres
and the hospital, the number of people coming to seek help
was recorded. Nurses undertook interview with the patient
and after that they were asked to reflect on the achievement
of the target. Further, patients also filled questionnaires
This questionnaire covers areas such as communication
during service provision and general services the nurses
provide (Korda & Itani, 2013)
Health promotion project on dementia
The symptoms of dementia with activities of daily life (LEFT) and
The type of dementia with occurrence percentage (RIGHT)
Statistical representation of target population affected
with dementia in Australia
This diagram presents the possible behavioral outcomes of
dementia in people aged above 70.