Cognitive Impairment Screening in Senior Citizens

I told you three times yesterday you had a doctors appointment and that I was waiver to come pick you up. Judy shuffled back to the kitchen to double check her calendar, followed by her daughter. some(prenominal) of them stopped in their tracks, taking in the ransacked kitchen. Her daughter asked what had happened in here, but Judy couldnt answer her. She was beside herself. Who could bring on possibly broken into her home and torn her kitchen apart? Dementia has reared its ugly head. Phil Just wanted to commit for his Reuben. He had been out and about running errands and was very hungry.The young man behind the counter had act to charge his debit phone card more than than a few times, but to no avail the card was denied each time. Phil began to recant his day to himself. Then It dawned on him, he had closed his bank account precisely a few hours before. Phil was rifleting ready to move down to Texas with his son due to his recent diagnosing of Alchemists. Phil was a regula r at the dell and the manager gave him the Reuben on the house. One of the worse things about this crappy disease Is losing the top executive of taking financial aid of myself (Phil Rolled, 2010). Just frustrating for me, not to remember what I submit to do to Just feel like I still can live and take care of myself. This Is a reciprocal frustration expressed by those suffering diseases like dementia and Dementia is a costly disease for the quintuplet million people like Phil and Judy living tit the disease in the United States, for Phil and Judy family, and for the government. Earlier detection and intervention of dementia would bequeath Phil and Judy the time to plan for the future and cling the utmost benefit from avail commensurate treatments.Earlier detection and intervention of the disease would lessen the future financial send on health care. Cognitive mischief screening would ascertain if early intervention is needed. Cognitive impairment screening in senior citiz ens must become practice. Dementia is used as an umbrella destination describing a wide range of symptoms that include a progressive decline in mental ability severe enough to interfere with daily intent. Dementia slowly robs Phil and Judy of their memories. At first, they experience problems with their short-term retrospect such as remembering an appointment.As time passes, the disease steals more and more of the brain. Phil and Judy eventually testament not be able to respond to their environment, nor will they be able to express when they are in pain, or hungry, or thirsty, or when they have to go to the bathroom. A true diagnosis is rare, because dementia affects everyone divers(prenominal)ly. There is no ere. Dementia is considered an old persons disease. Its normal to stymy where you left your keys when youre 65 years old or to forget where you parked the car. Contrary to popular belief, dementia is not a normal part of ageing.Alchemists is the most common shell of deme ntia, but there are many other types. One of the biggest risk factors in ontogeny dementia is a persons age. Unless someone has stumbled onto the fountain of youth, no one can change or mask from their age. Persons age 65 and older have a greater risk of suffering from dementia. Every five years those Hansen double, so by the time Judy is 85 years old her chance is nearly 50 percent. Today, there is an estimated five million people living with a dementia related disease in the United States. (What is Dementia, n. D. With the first wave of Baby Boomers already at age 68, the cost of dementia in 40 years is expected to exceed $1. 2 trillion (Alchemists Fact and Figures, n. D. ). In 2010, the worldwide be associated with dementia equaled one percent of global GAP. One percent doesnt seem like much on a global scale. However, if dementia care was a company Dementia Inc. Loud be considered the worlds largest by annual revenue. (GE Healthcare, 2014) The Alchemists Association predicts the total number of dementia-related cases in the United States will reach 14 million in the year 2050.Our healthcare system and the Medicare program are already strained. As the Baby Boomers get older, are we going to be able to weather the suffocating financial squeeze this disease is going to take a shit? Phials family is lucky to catch the disease before it has progressed too far, his son will be able to take care of him at home until the disease progresses further. The average cost for caring for someone at home is $12,500 per year. As the disease robs Phil of more brain function, more skilled care is required. Families can be billed anywhere from $42,000 to $72,000 per year.Victims and their families can easily deplete their savings on medical care and then(prenominal) turn to Medicare/Medicaid and tax payers to sustain with the remaining costs. Judy may have already passed the opportune time to every stay at home with her daughter or have in-home care and ultimately nee ds to go live either in an assisted living or nursing themselves for the price of skilled care. Senator tom Harkin stated The only way we are truly going to save Medicare from bankruptcy when the baby boomers bother is to reduce the length and incidence of expensive illnesses like Alchemists. Harkin, Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human go, and Education, and cogitate Agencies recently held a hearing in February of 2014 to inspect the financial impact of Alchemists in America (Bethlehem, 1998). get outd how do we reduce the length of disease that has a difficult diagnosis and no cure in the foreseeable future? We need to be looking at intervention opportunities. All things considered, some will argue that dementia-related diseases are only a small part of a much bigger problem, dismissing the vagary that the disease could bankrupt Medicare. Projections of the frequency of a disease 30 years from now should be taken with a grain of salt, said Gail Wiliness, chairman of the federal Physician Payment Review Commission (Bethlehem, 1998). We dont bonk how the frequency of other disease will rise or fall, and how that will affect longevity. She went on to commemorate the fact that medical research has allowed people to live longer lives and improve quality of fife. However, she questioned whether the research has deliver us any money.Wiliness almost sounds like she is agreeing with another rarely expressed view that concludes if we devote more money and effort into finding a cure for dementia that will only prolong the life of the elderly by a few more years. Crudely put, if you dont die of complications from dementia, youll still die of something else. Understandably, we cant rid of death. That is an inevitable fact of life. If we as a community could act early, if we as a community could provide intervention, what kind of standard would e set for the rest of the nation?Earlier detection of dementia could provide earli er intervention, delay the impact of the disease, and prevent significant health events in the future. Does that process sound known? In 2013, The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommends women get a mammogram every 2 years commencement at age 50 to keep proactive about breast crabmeat (Mammograms Fact Sheet). Furthermore, the same task force recommends oscilloscopes in adults beginning at age 50 and keep until age 75 (at different intervals depending on family history) o prevent colon cancer.Curious, I went to the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force website on Recommendations for Adults. I found preventative information on 19 different cancers and 11 different types of boob disease. I found nothing on dementia or Alchemists. Nothing. Alchemists disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the United States (Leading Causes of Death, 2011). The top five include heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke. All five of those diseases all ha ve preventative measures and are routinely screened for in our annual heck-ups with our doctors.What needs to be addressed though is why there is more preponderance on detecting cancers and heart disease? John Morris, professor of neurology and co-director of the Alchemists disease research warmheartedness at Washington Universitys School of Medicine, believes we should find a way to distinguish between the normal aging process and early dementia and build more interest (Bethlehem, 1998). This is where a cognitive assessment could cooperate bridge that gap. A cognitive assessment is an examination that is used to determine someones level of cognitive function.A throng of 2,719 elderly residents in Almagest County, Minnesota were 2014). The doctors conducting the case knew from earlier studies that elderly residents would sometimes have a cognitive assessment that indicated some impairment, but when examined again later, the impairment had lessened or completely gone away. During this trial, 40% of people with a mild cognitive impairment reverted back to a more normal state. At the end of the study, the doctors found that 65% of those reverts went on to develop dementia (Berliner, 2014).While this study shows that not everyone who has cognitive impairments may o on to develop dementia, the doctors were certainly more aware of any changes. Unfortunately, there isnt one type of assessment test that is better than the others. However, the Alchemists Association website has recommended several cognitive assessment tools that can be performed in less that or around five minutes in a primary care or community setting. Not only are there patient assessment tools, there are origin tools for family members and close friends to use as well. Utilizing these assessments Just once isnt going to do the trick.Then again, imagine f the U. S. frustrative Services Task Force recommended a cognitive assessment screening every two-three years starting at age 65. Cognitive impa irment screening must become practice for senior citizens. The assessments may not garner conclusive data, but over time we will be able to create a clearer picture as to how dementia slowly progresses. From that picture, we will develop earlier intervention techniques to help ease not only the financial strain on Phil and Judy and their families, but ease the frustration mat by dementias victims.