Dementia

What is Dementia?

It is important to understand what is meant by dementia, as the definition is central to the type of support Habren provides.

For example, use of medical definitions often position a person with dementia as having a loss of abilities instead of seeing them as an individual with specific capabilities. Below are two descriptions, one of which is medically orientated whilst the other is more of an enabling description, focusing more on the emotional aspects of dementia.

Definitions of Dementia.

The World Health Organisation (1992) offers the following description of dementia.

"Dementia is a syndrome due to disease of the brain, usually of a chronic or progressive nature, in which there is disturbance of multiple higher cortical functions, including memory, thinking, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning capacity, language, and judgement."

This is a medical definition of dementia, which focuses on dementia as a disease that has an end stage of death and emphasises that the condition is characterised by loss of memory and intellectual abilities. It sees the person as being disabled by these conditions rather than how society disables the person through exactly this kind of negative stereotyping.

The following description from the Alzheimer's Society focuses more on the interactive and emotional skills of the person:

"Dementia is a term used to describe various different brain disorders that have in common a loss of brain function that is usually progressive and eventually severe. There are over 100 different types of dementia. The most common are Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies. Symptoms of dementia include loss of memory, confusion and problems with speech and understanding."

Therefore, a description that defines dementia in social and emotional terms (not by the loss of abilities) will play an integral part in how we provide our services.

Dementia in the UK & Wales

In the UK, 6% of people over 65 develop dementia to some degree, and this figure increases to 20% among people over 85. Although dementia is predominantly associated with older people, it is estimated that as many as 18,500 people under the age of 65 have dementia.

About 40% of people with dementia live in either a hospital, nursing home or residential home. The remainder live in the community.

In Wales there are estimated to be more than 40,000 people with dementia. There is a general lack of services for people with dementia and where services do exist, they are traditional and do not focus on independent living. Most people with dementia, if they are not being looked after by family members, are either in a nursing or residential home or hospital setting with inadequate care and support.