How does someone die from Dementia

how does someone actually die from dementia in this video I'm going to be talking about how dementia actually progresses what causes death and then how can you help as the caregiver when I say dementia specifically I'm talking about all types of dementia Alzheimer's disease even Parkinson's disease yes they are all different and they all will look a little different but in general all of those diseases will fit into what I'm about to say in this video dementia is a horrific disease we all know this it does carry a different progression especially in the hospice world so with certain types of cancers I see a big steep slope progression they decline usually very quickly with diseases like dementia Alzheimer's Parkinson's they have a staircase decline meaning they are meeting a new Plateau they're living right here with this new normal and then suddenly something happens it's usually a fall or some kind of infection a UTI or aspiration pneumonia when this happens their health will deine and they'll be down here and they'll be at a new normal where they seem like oh my gosh is this it or or they may even seem like they're appropriate for hospice at this time just depends and then slowly but surely whether they're on hospice or not they usually will creep back up and they won't Plateau back out where they were they'll Plateau like around here somewhere right so there is some Decline and it turns into the slow stairway decline which can be really difficult because watching someone slowly Decline and slowly deteriorate slowly change over time it's just really hard to watch and care for someone like that so the two things I said that can cause that steep decline at first are usually infections so a UTI which is a urinary tract infection or aspiration pneumonia which is when you inhale little food particles into your lungs which can happen a lot with people with this with these diseases two things that are important to think about during these times would be fall prevention and infection prevention best you can keeping this person clean and keeping this person safe by preventing Falls people ask me all the time what do people with dementia actually die from there's a couple things sometimes it's an event like I said they have aspiration pneumonia and they decline so much they will actually die from the infection but the one I see more commonly is the slow gradual progression of dementia where they eventually end up on hospice and they eventually stop eating and drinking and then they have this natural death they're dying from the disease of dementia but the disease of dementia makes them stop eating and drinking which essentially causes them to go into the actively dying phase I will say out of all the disease diseases that I see people dying from dementia like I said is Progressive and difficult the because it's the whole duration of this person's life 10 15 years but I will say the end of dementia during the actively dying phases is usually very very peaceful you will mostly see your loved one sleeping all the time and not eating and drinking sleeping all the time and not eating and drinking and this does lead to a very peaceful death so the thing that's surprising to a lot lot of people is that confusion and agitation and restlessness that happens a lot in the beginning stages of dementia is not really present at the end every once in a while people with dementia will be in the actively dying phase and be restless and agitated but I would say nine times out of 10 the agitation the restlessness the confusion is gone at the very very end and the person is usually just sleeping and peaceful how can you help your loved one with dementia the biggest thing I always say is keep them clean safe and comfortable those can be difficult things to do but if you are doing them and you ask yourself is my loved one clean are they safe are they comfortable you're good you don't need to do anything else in that moment what are some things you can look out for because skin breakdown is one thing I do see a lot with dementia Alzheimer's Parkinson's why do we see it it's usually because they eventually become so debilitated they are bed bound when you're bed bound you are laying down a lot and there's pressure points on your body that can get pressure wounds one thing to remember is you can care for your loved one the best possible way you can you can do all the things I'm telling you to do and they still might get pressure wounds this does not mean you're taking bad care of them this is just the nature of the Beast sometimes so let me show you some things to look out for so you can kind of catch these things early the best thing you can can do each time you change your loved one if they're bed bound would be to check for redness and I'm going to show you some pictures now to show you what the redness might look like it's usually on the buttock or the upper part of the butt you'll see some redness the heels are a big place where you might see redness shoulder blades it really depends you just want to check the whole back side of their body usually now if you do start seeing these little pink or red areas it's okay it's to be expected but just keep an eye on that area and the best thing you can do is turn them when you think of it throughout the day take them off the pressure point a little pillow underneath the butt you want to float the heels if you can with the pillow so they're not touching the bed little things like that will go a long way in helping skin breakdown if you know someone who is a caregiver and you want ways to be of service to this person people always ask me how can I help my aunt who's the caregiver for my uncle or for my neighbor who I know is caring for their mom how can I help ask first off offer to be there you know hey can I give you a break I'm happy to sit with your loved one for a couple hours while you go get coffee or go get food or go walk around the neighborhood something offer to be there offer to give them a break show up with coffee show up with food just show up for this person and if you are the main caregiver you need to accept the help I think it's so easy for people to go no no no or they're not going to know how to do it or it's okay I can't leave no this is the time to accept help if you are having people ask how can I help you tell them tell them you need to take breaks so you can care for yourself [Music] too

Channel: Hospice Nurse Julie

Views: 1,424,490

Keywords: hospice, hospice nurse, hospice nurse julie, hospice care, hospicenursejulie, actively dying, actively dying patient, actively dying hospice, what dying looks like, what actively dying looks like, actively dying person, real life actively dying, death education, end of life, end of life care, hospice end of life, hospice actively dying, end-of-life care, natural process of body shutting down, hospice care dying, nurse, continuing care, macy catheter, macy cath, catheter

Id: 6VtRH7NzqF0

Length: 6min 55sec (415 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 22 2024