Dementia Awarness Medical and Social Model

Dementia awareness

What is meant by Dementia?

Dementia is a decline in a person’s mental ability. Used, as a broad term dementia’s main sign's and symptoms are a loss in the ability to Communicate, make rational judgments and remembering. It is degenerative and progressive. It affects different people at different times in life affecting different parts of the brain at different speeds.

Outline the medical model of Dementia:

The Medical Model:

The medical model is a clinical approach that creates dependency. This restricts choice, disempowerment and reinforces stereotypes. The clinical approach is characterized by global cognitive impairment.
This represents a decline from previous levels of functioning. It can impair abilities to function and in some cases can cause behavioral and psychiatric tendencies.

The Social Model:

The social model is person centered. By placing them in their social environment their emotions and behaviors can be better understood. This then empowers the individual through independence with the right support. Improving the quality of life for a person living with dementia.

Describe how different individuals may experience living with dementia depending on:

A stigma that is attached to dementia is that people are always forgetful, but a person who lives with fronto-temporal dementia could be less forgetful that. Their memory could be in tact but noticeable personality changes could occur. Other dementias i.e.: dementia with Lewis bodies, interrupts normal functioning of the brain, also the memory, speech and concentration skills. It shares similar symptoms of Parkinsons like slow movement, tremors and speech. Vascular dementia can cause incontinence and seizures. Not all types of dementia have the same effect.
People who are in earlier age (60-70) and living with dementia tend to be less independent on others, where as (70-80’s) require more care and are more dependent. Ability and disability also depend on...