Alzheimer’s is a distressing disease that slowly robs people of their minds and the ability to retain and recall memories. In the early stages of Alzheimer’s, people tend to find it challenging to remember more recent events while being able to remember older events that happened years ago.
As time goes on, more symptoms can develop, including:
- Difficulty doing everyday activities
- Dramatic mood swings, including angry outbursts, anxiety, and depression
- Feeling disoriented in familiar surroundings and getting lost easily
- Feelings of confusion or frustration, especially at night
- Having trouble focusing
- Physical difficulties, such as poor coordination and a lumbering walk
- Trouble communicating
Alzheimer’s patients can fail to recognise family and loved ones. They can also forget simple tasks, such as washing and dressing, using the toilet, the time of day or night, and feeding themselves.
The progression of the disease causes brain tissue to break down over time, and the most common age of onset is over 65. People can live with Alzheimer’s for a few short years or many decades. On average, people live with Alzheimer’s for around nine years. Women are more likely than men to develop Alzheimer’s, and currently, around one in eight people over 65 have the disease.
Alzheimer’s stages
The seven stages of Alzheimer’s don’t always occur in order. Symptoms can vary between people, but as the disease progresses, it is common for Alzheimer’s patients to experience all stages.
Here are the seven stages you expect to develop as Alzheimer’s progresses:
- Stage 1: Normal Outward Behaviour: Alzheimer’s starts to develop in the brain years before anyone notices apparent issues. Early-stage Alzheimer’s can be detected using a PET scan, an imaging test showing how the brain works.
- Stage 2: Very Mild Changes: You may be able to pick up small changes such as mild forgetfulness, stumbling over words or forgetting where they leave things like keys, glasses, phone etc., which can be easily confused with natural ageing.
- Stage 3: Mild Decline: Most people notice more obvious changes, such as forgetting a book they just read, repeating the same question repeatedly, struggling to make or keep appointments, and forgetting new people’s names.
- Stage 4: Moderate Decline: People will develop more problems with thinking, reasoning and remembering things about themselves at this stage. You may notice the person struggling to remember the date, forgetting how to cook favourite meals, or not being able to follow routines.
- Stage 5: Moderately Severe Decline: This is where people start to lose track of where they are in familiar surroundings, are not able to tell the time, struggle to find their way home, cannot remember their address and phone number, and may be confused over what clothes to wear for the weather.
- Stage 6: Severe Decline: The progression of the disease will reach a stage where people forget the names and faces of family and loved ones. They may confuse people for someone else and believe they have a job and need to go to work even though they have retired. At this stage, Alzheimer’s patients struggle to walk, go to the toilet, feed themselves, swallow and dress.
- Stage 7: Very Severe Decline: This is where most things we take for granted begin to fade and disappear. Patients can fail to recognise hunger or thirst and will struggle to walk, sit up, feed themselves unaided, or be able to dress.
PDUK provides a range of professional healthcare training courses and practical hands-on workshops for healthcare professionals. We highly recommend the following course.
A60 The Elderly Patient with Dementia: A person-centred approach
This course is designed for HCAs and Health Care Support Workers caring for patients that have dementia. The course focuses on offering support and managing challenges while maintaining a person-centred approach when dealing with these individuals.
Course participants will learn valuable skills, including:
- Have a clearer understanding of what dementia is and how it affects the elderly.
- Be more aware of the ageing process.
- Discuss the application of key strategies in caring for the person with dementia.
- Review common treatments and management of dementia.
This one-day course lasts seven hours and includes all course material, evaluations and certificate of attendance.