Written by Lisa Todd, CEO for World Alzheimer's Day 2024
When I first studied mental health, I worked in a care environment with mostly older adults. There was a unit for people who had Dementia and Alzheimer’s type symptoms. The range of different symptoms people were affected by and the way their illness impacted their lives was so different it really interested me and encouraged me to learn more about the disease. I was so interested by the repetitive behaviours, muddled words, memory impairment, personality changes and other strange symptoms, and getting to know the people, about their interesting pasts and their families was something which impacted the way I wanted to spend my future career.
I studied Alzheimer’s throughout my degree and was never surprised to hear any families story with the symptoms due to the wide range of ways people were affected.
Families affected are often struck by a grief because although their family member is alive, they feel they are losing them each day a little more. Working with people who had Alzheimer’s meant I not only got to know them but also their families, I think the families often were the ones who suffered most through the diagnosis due to the lack of insight and understanding of those who were suffering the disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. About two out of three people living with dementia in the UK have Alzheimer’s disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is a physical illness which damages a person’s brain. It starts many years before symptoms start to show. Two proteins, called amyloid and tau build up. Amyloid builds up in the space between different cells in the brain, and tau is present inside nerve cells themselves. A trigger for these build ups is not yet known but its thought that over time its these build ups of protein that cause the Dementia symptoms and affect how the brain works.
There is no cure for Alzheimer’s however thanks to research there are now more and more hopeful developments.
In August 2024 the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved a drug (Leqembi) as a treatment for some people living with early Alzheimer’s disease. The drug can slow down the decline in memory and thinking skills of people living with early Alzheimer’s disease. There is still to be a decision made as to whether the NHS will be using this treatment however it shows that the years of research, studying, and trials are finally showing some light for people with the disease. Trials for the drug lasted over 18 months and they did show it slowed down the speed at which memory and thinking skills got worse by 27% in people taking the drug compared to people on the dummy drug. This gives me real hope for the future, and I am excited to see what the future holds treatment wise for people with Alzheimer’s.
DGMHA in the last year started supporting early onset Dementia sufferers to stay at home for longer by offering care at home type support, as a mental health provider we felt it important we assist people with the support they require to stay at home as long as possible. We provide support with environmental advice, social support, medication, mealtime support, respite support etc. We aim to ensure people are given the best support possible to stay in their home environment. This is something as CEO I am passionate about, I feel we need to change the way we look at this support and provide it as an early intervention to avoid people being unnecessarily admitted to hospitals, to lose skills more quickly than they may if prompted regularly and given the correct type of support at the correct time.
21/09/2024