Psychological and Emotional Impact of Dementia Research Proposal

This research proposal investigates the psychological and emotional impact of dementia on both patients and their family members. It aims to analyze the psychological and emotional consequences of the disease, determine the specific impacts on patients and families, and propose strategies for coping and overcoming these challenges. The background section defines dementia and its various types, highlighting the damage to brain cells as a core cause. The rationale emphasizes the increasing prevalence of dementia, particularly among women, and the need to understand its psychological and emotional effects, including mood swings, aggression, and loss of interest in social activities. The literature review explores the psychological impacts such as mood swings, loss of confidence, and stress, as well as emotional impacts like anger and depression. It also examines strategies for managing dementia, including psychotherapy, medication, and social engagement. The methodology outlines an inductive research approach using qualitative methods, including interviews and surveys, to gather data from both patients and family members. Descriptive research design will be used to analyze a longitudinal case study, and convenient sampling will be used to select participants. The proposal also acknowledges potential limitations such as time and cost constraints. The proposal concludes with a detailed timescale outlining the project's phases.

Research Proposal

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Aim..................................................................................................................................................1
Objectives........................................................................................................................................1
Background......................................................................................................................................1
Rationale..........................................................................................................................................1
Literature review..............................................................................................................................2
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................4
Timescale.........................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

Aim
To study the psychological and emotional impact of dementia on patients and their family
members
Objectives
 To analyse the psychological impact of dementia on patient and family members.
 To determine the emotional impact of dementia on patients and family members.
 To recommend strategies to overcome the impact of dementia.
Background
Dementia is considered as an issue in which the person suffers from loss of memory and
along with it, also becomes a victim of various mental abilities that somehow interferes with
their daily life chores and functions. The diseases can be classified in a few types such as
Alzheimer's dementia, vascular dementia etc. Although the symptoms of each type of dementia
are almost similar such as the person starts forgetting the basic things of their daily life. The
actual reason why this happens is because of the damage to the brain cells. Initially, the cells of
the brain stop communicating with each other’s, which further results in loss of signals, because
of which the person starts to forget things (Williams and et.al., 2009). The treatment for
dementia has not yet been discovered but some methods can be used for treating some
symptoms. Due to this scenario, it might offer long term impact on the patient and their family
members. In this respect, present research is proposed to ascertain the psychological and
emotional impact of dementia on patients and their family members. Through this research,
consequences faced by family member will be highlighted and strategies to overcome the same
will be developed.
Rationale
The research is being done in order to analyse the psychological and emotional impact of
the people suffering with dementia and their families. The rate of dementia in people is
increasing in UK, so it is important to study the psychological and emotional impact of dementia
on the patients as well as their family members. In fact, there has been observed an increase in
the females as compared with men. The psychological impact of dementia causes the person to
suffer from a variety of emotions as the person sometimes feel sad, the aggressive level of the
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person suddenly increases, they start fearing from various things and also, they lose interest in
socialism. The disease can also take the person to higher levels of depression and anxiety. They
lose their confidence in themselves. The family members of the person with dementia also
understand the fact that at this time, the person needs proper support and care and the person,
should also be dealt with proper care and support. Patience is also an important factor which the
family members should considered. Although it is a very hard situation for the family members
as well to see the person like this but with proper care and support, the person can get a sort of
relief. So, it is important to study the impact of the psychological and emotional factors in the
people with dementia and their family members. Also, it will help in exploring various strategies
that can help in providing treatment to the people suffering from dementia.
Literature review
Psychological impact of dementia on patient and family members
The psychological impacts of dementia include the condition of the patient when a person
have mixed feeling, for a few times, the person will be happy and for the next few hours or
minutes, they go sad. As in this case, the brain cells have been damaged because of which the
brain stops receiving the signals, because of which the person suffers from memory loss and
even forgets the basic things as well such as kept something at one place and forgets that it is
there. So, the psychological impact of dementia makes the person weak enough from inside that
they go through mood swings and also from various emotions. The family members also face a
tough time when a person in their family behaves quite abnormal just because of the damaged
brain cells. But to stay strong and provide proper care and support to the person is the only
option left at this time. Rather, some treatments can also be provided that can help in providing
some sort of relief to the patient. Additionally, Prince, (2015) stated that patient of dementia may
sometimes feel insecure and often loses confidence in their own capabilities. Due to this, they are
not able to controlled and they doubt their own judgement. Through this, complexity is felt by
their family member in dealing with them and this usually leads to harm of self-esteem of
patients as well. Further, Davies, and et.al., (2010) commented that diagnose of dementia
develops stress level among individual which results into imbalance in their health. Also,
financial circumstances, relationship goals and employment status are another set of impact that
affect their morale. However, according to Wortmann, (2012) people forms new relationship as a
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result of diagnosing dementia, such as attending support group or related. This somewhere boost
the morale of patients which aids in improving chronic health condition.
Emotional impacts of dementia on patient and family members
The person with dementia may feel mood swings and also become aggressive at any
point of time. As the person is not enough able to understand properly what is going around, they
may feel some mood swings and along with it, they scream, shout and sometimes act very
stubborn. It is because the cells in the brain have been damaged and the person loses its ability to
focus on things, so the person acts like a kid sometimes. This can be every emotional for the
family members as well but treating these patients with patience can help in controlling the
symptoms to an extent. Further, Llibre and et.al., (2008) stated that patients usually faces anger
and depression due to memory loss which is harmful for family member as well. Person with
dementia often frighten when they came across to strangers or in public. Due to this, they can
harm themselves or to other. Additionally, Allegri, and et.al., (2007) commented that patients
may also become angry when their family member or caregiver assists them in some work. This
usually leads to development of complex situation for other people. Due to this, it is highly
required that patients should be offered with manageable task in order to reduce their aggression
level.
Recommendation of strategies that can help in overcoming from dementia
For the treatment of dementia, various therapies and medication can be used such as
Psychotherapy, using anti dementia agents etc. The Psychotherapy can be used for providing a
relief in the frequency of the problematic behaviour of the person such as it helps in minimize
the aggression level or any misbehaviour etc. Psychotropic drugs can also be used as a
supportive therapy which helps in the treatment of the behavioural issues in the people suffering
from dementia. Beside this, Wimo and et.al., (2013) suggested that family member should
remain active and make efforts to keep patients involve socially. Through this, their morale gets
increased which aids in coping with the disease. Further, depression need to manage either by
medical treatment or through counselling as it can affect the mental and physical health severely.
Also, Aminzadeh and et.al., (2007) commented that family member must involve more of
emotional content so that patients feels connected to them and this results into decline in stress
and aggression level. Also, they must be given attention all time and their needs must be looked
regularly. This essentially helps in improving their health in significant manner.
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Research Methodology
Research can be considered as a systematic investigation in studying the facts and figures
of the topic in order to explore it completely. A research method can be considered as a plan that
has been made very systematically for the further conduction of the research. Various aspects of
the research methodology are discussed as under :
Research approach
The research approach is termed as a way that acts as a pre-plan and can be classified as
either inductive or deductive. The researcher will make use of inductive theory because the
concept of analysing the impact of dementia is already aimed and no new theory is included in it.
In this respect, data will be collected through interviews and surveys from family member and
patients in order to get insight from them (Bernard, 2011). This data will be analysed
theoretically by considering the inputs attained from respondents.
Research strategy
Research strategy is considered as some techniques that the researcher can use for
conducting the whole research. These are classified as either qualitative or quantitative. The
researcher will make use of the qualitative research as data from primary sources can seem more
helpful for conducting this research (Collis and Hussey 2014). Through this, interpretation will
be made upon the responds received and accordingly conclusion will be developed. Through
qualitative method, actual feelings and impact of dementia can be assessed. Also, psychological
and metical impact cannot be quantified and therefore quantitative measures will not be applied
in this research.
Research design
The design of research is the way the data and information will be collected by the
researcher. It is classified in five types such as the descriptive, co relational, experimental, semi
experimental and review. The researcher will make use of the descriptive type as the topic deals
with a longitudinal case study (Crowther and Lancaster, 2012). This is so because, in-depth
description of impact will be done that aids in gaining better insight about the impact of dementia
on family member and patients. Additionally, descriptive method aids in assessing the strategies
to deal with dementia suffering people.
Data Collection and Sampling
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The data can be collected by primary or secondary sources. The primary data is the data
that is being collected for the first time and the secondary data is the data that is being already
collected by some external body. The primary data can be collected by various sources such as
by means of surveys, interviews, focused groups etc. and the secondary data includes the data
from online, books, journals etc (Fiegen, 2010). The researcher will make use of the primary data
in this research as the data collected from interviews and surveys will be more helpful for this
research as compared to the quantitative data.
In this regard, interview will be conducted from the family member so that their inputs
can be received towards dementia patients. In this context, semi-structured questions will be
considered so that viewpoints on standard aspects can be attained. On the other hand, survey will
be taken from the patients in order to record their perception and feelings. Structured
questionnaire will be used for the same.
As far as sampling is concerned, convenient sampling will be used whereby patients and
family member will be selected as per the convenience of researcher. Based on it, 15 family
members will be selected for interview and 30 patients for the survey. Through this, handful
amount of information will be received that aids in gaining insight about the effect of dementia.
Research Limitations
The limitations of a research are the factors that can be unavailable at the time of
conducting the research. Like in case if the researcher wants to put some more time in the
research for a better analysis, for that they will be needed extra cost and resources. When the
research will be done for a more time, it is obvious that it will be requiring more cost as well. So,
it will be better for the researcher to complete the project in the given deadline, otherwise cost
and time can act as the limitations for this research if these are not present with the researcher.
Timescale
Basis Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8
Issue
analysis
Determinati
on of aim
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Setting the
objectives
Based on
themes,
information
is gathered
Implementa
tion of
research
methodolog
ies
Collection
of primary
data and
information
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REFERENCES
Allegri, R.F., and et.al., 2007. Economic impact of dementia in developing countries: an
evaluation of costs of Alzheimer-type dementia in Argentina. International
Psychogeriatrics. 19(4). pp.705-718.
Aminzadeh, F. and et.al., 2007. Emotional impact of dementia diagnosis: exploring persons with
dementia and caregivers’ perspectives. Aging and Mental Health. 11(3). pp.281-290.
Bernard, R. H., 2011. Research Methods in Anthropology.5th ed. Rowman Altamira
Collis J., Hussey R., 2014. Business Research: A practical guide for undergraduate and
postgraduate students. 4th ed. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Crowther, D. and Lancaster, G., 2012. Research Methods.2nd ed. Routledge.
Davies, H.D. and et.al., 2010. The impact of dementia and mild memory impairment (MMI) on
intimacy and sexuality in spousal relationships. International Psychogeriatrics. 22(4),
pp.618-628.
Fiegen, A. M., 2010. Systematic review of research methods: the case of business instruction.
Reference Services Review.38(3).pp.385 – 397.
Llibre, J.R. and et.al., 2008. The prevalence, correlates and impact of dementia in Cuba. A 10/66
group population-based survey. Neuroepidemiology. 31(4), pp.243-251.
Prince, M.J., 2015. World Alzheimer Report 2015: the global impact of dementia: an analysis of
prevalence, incidence, cost and trends. Alzheimer's Disease International.
Williams, K.N. and et.al., 2009. Elderspeak communication: Impact on dementia care. American
Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias. 24(1). pp.11-20.
Wimo, A., Jönsson, L., Bond, J., Prince, M., Winblad, B. and International, A.D., 2013. The
worldwide economic impact of dementia 2010. Alzheimer's & Dementia. 9(1). pp.1-11.
Wortmann, M., 2012. Dementia: a global health priority-highlights from an ADI and World
Health Organization report. Alzheimer's research & therapy. 4(5), p.40.
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