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Living well with specific types of dementia: a cognitive neurology perspective



Dementia image

Dementia is a very complex construct, embracing a number of different possible diagnoses, with different time courses. There is a common perception that ‘dementia’ is a single disorder, further perpetuated by most of the media, but this is far from true, and indeed a critical rôle of the cognitive neurologist might be try to identify what particular type of dementia an individual might be living with. This might best inform an approach to be taken by all specialties in helping that individual, and specific problems might be, for example, in wayfinding or social interactions at an early stage.

There are many different types of dementia, and they all tend to affect various bits of the brain as the disease progresses in a certain order. Whilst the patterns of progression are not identical, it can be observed that certain issues are more likely to met in some forms of dementia rather than others. For example, an individual with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) is likely to have difficulty with spatial navigation or wayfinding earlier on, as the part of the brain affected in that type of dementia earlier one tends to be the areas around the hippocampus in the temporal lobe part of the human brain. Conversely, in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), individuals can be referred to health services because of a subtle change in personality and behaviour, with memory for day-to-day events relatively intact.

Any analysis of ‘living well in dementia’ has to acknowledge that dementia is a “heterogeneous” condition, and a specialist view of dementia will tend to consider specific issues which may be more relevant in the activities of daily living in any individual with dementia. This focused approach is likely to be a constructive one, to help society enable individuals with dementia with their distinct issues. If these issues can be addressed in a way that appreciates the individual as a person, rather than ‘medicalising’ the patient, the wellbeing of immediates (e.g. family or friends) is likely to be better too.

Dementia of Alzheimer type

Dementia of Alzheimer type is the most common cause of dementia and a growing health problem globally, affecting 20% of the population over 80 years of age (Ferri et al., 2005).

Pathology

Currently, the definite diagnosis of DAT can only be made through autopsy to find the pathological hallmarks of the disease, microscopic amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The development of biomarkers that can reliably indicate presence of the disease at the earliest possible stage is therefore an important public health goal. Macroscopically, DAT is associated with progressive brain tissue loss (Braak and Braak, 1998), which MRI can non-invasively visualise to some extent in-vivo (Thompson et al., 2007). Unsurprisingly, MRI has attracted considerable interest as a tool to identify DAT biomarkers.

Histological studies have shown that the hippocampus is particularly vulnerable to DAT pathology and already considerably damaged at the time clinical symptoms first appear (Braak and Braak, 1998).

Spatial cognition

The “cognitive map theory” proposes that the hippocampus of rats and other animals represents their environments, locations within those environments, and their contents, thus providing the basis for spatial memory and flexible navigation. When it comes to humans, the theory suggests a broader function for the hippocampus, based at least in part on lateralisation of function (Burgess, Maguire and O’Keefe, 2002). The cognitive map theory posits that the hippocampus specifically supports allocentric processing of space in contrast to other brain regions, such as the parietal neocortex, which support egocentric processing (O’Keefe and Nadel, 1978).

Structural MRI scans of the brains of humans with extensive navigation experience, licensed London taxi drivers, were analysed and compared with those of control subjects who did not drive taxis. The posterior hippocampi of taxi drivers were significantly larger relative to those of control subjects. A more anterior hippocampal region was larger in control subjects than in taxi drivers. Hippocampal volume correlated with the amount of time spent as a taxi driver (positively in the posterior and negatively in the anterior hippocampus). These data are in accordance with the idea that the posterior hippocampus stores a spatial representation of the environment and can expand regionally to accommodate elaboration of this representation in people with a high dependence on navigational skills. It seems that there is a capacity for local plastic change in the structure of the healthy adult human brain in response to environmental demands.

Wayfinding

Problems in navigation could even be a good way to diagnose early dementia of Alzheimer type (“DAT”), in future. Virtual reality (“VR”) allows naturalistic evaluation of spatial cognition disorders associated with DAT. These measures seem to be well correlated to daily difficulties of people, thus providing specific measures of cognitive deficits and their functional impact. Thus, VR would be a relevant tool for the early screening of dementia and the differential diagnosis of DAT (Déjos et al., 2011).

While there is abundant evidence for spatial learning and memory decrements in patients with unilateral hippocampal lesions, remarkably little research has been done on spatial memory and learning in patients with DAT, in which relatively selective bilateral hippocampal atrophy is consistently reported in the early stages of the disease (de Pol, 2006). Only a few studies have examined static object-location memory tasks in DAT patients, demonstrating impaired performance compared to controls (Bucks and Willison, 1997; Kessels et al., 2010). Using a real-world wayfinding test, Monacelli and colleagues (Monacelli et al., 2003) investigated a group of DAT patients and demonstrated impaired spatial navigation and spatial orientation in the DAT group, possibly due to an underlying deficit in linking landmark information to route knowledge. Similar findings have also been reported using virtual maze-learning paradigms in AD patients (Cushman, Stein and Duffy, 2008; Kalova et al., 2005).

Current pedestrian navigation systems predominantly use distance-to-turn information and directional information to enable a user to navigate. However, Cherrier and colleagues (Cherrier, Mendez and Perryman, 2001) showed that dementia patients performed better on recognition of landmarks compared with recognition and recall of spatial layout.  Furthermore, relatively few studies have examined the workplaces of staff compared to those that address outcomes for patients and their families. One theme that has been receiving increasing attention over the last few years in the literature about healing environments is wayfinding.

In addition to a complex floor plan, there are other elements that contribute to poor wayfinding and inadequate or conflicting cues such as colours and lighting (Brown, Wright and Brown, 1997). In addition to these elements, clear and understandable wayfinding and maps are fundamental to becoming oriented. However, maps should be oriented so that the top signifies the direction of movement for ease of use (Ulrich et al., 1994). Moreover, the number of signs available has a significant effect on wayfinding along many different measures including travel time, the frequencies of hesitations, the number of times directions were asked, and the reported level of stress. These results suggest that directional signs should be placed at or before every major intersection, at major destinations, and where a single environmental cue or a series of such cues (for instance, a change in flooring material) conveys the message that the individual is moving from one area into another. If there are no key decision points along a route, signs should be placed approximately every 4.6-7.6 m (Ulrich et al., 1994).

Earlier studies reviewed by Day and Calkins (2002) found that much of the orientation work revolved around “signage”, and indentified that personalised and/or unique signage assisted residents in locating desired destinations. Passini and colleagues (Passini et al., 2000) studied newly admitted residents with dementia, and noted that learning new routes was a slow process. Residents who could not identify paths to desired locations exhibited anxiety, confusion, mutism and even panic. They also noted that some residents perceived patterns on the floor as a barrier. They conclude that “capacity of decision-making is reduced to decisions based on immediate and visually accessible information” whether that information was signs, landmarks, or direct visibility of the desired location. They also noted that the typical location of signs is often not seen by residents whose visual field is low to the ground.

Rule, Milke and Dobbs (1991) also found that features such as many similar doorways along corridors, lack of windows to the outside and signage resulted in poorer orientation. McGilton, Rivera and Dawson (2003) conducted a randomised control trial to ascertain the effects of using a locational map and training techniques on the ability of residents to locate distance locations (a dining room on a different floor). While residents in the treatment group showed significant effect within one week of starting the trial, the effect was not sustained three months later.

Driving and DAT

Safe automobile driving requires a driver to perform multiple competing tasks and attend to a host of objects and ongoing events, while simultaneously monitoring traffic with central and peripheral vision to avoid roadway hazards. Impairments of visual acuity and visual fields increase crashes and traffic violations (Burg, 1971). However, drivers with certain neurological conditions may potentially fail to perceive critical roadside targets and dangers even in the absence of a measurable field defect on standard perimetry or diminished visual acuity (Owsley and McGwin, 1999).

Former Urbanites Find Jersey Driving Intimidating

DAT affects processing of visual sensory cues and may produce attentional decline and agnosia (for a review, see Hodges, 2011). These deficits can impair drivers’ processing of visual information such as roadway landmarks and traffic signs that provide key information about a driver’s route, upcoming road hazards, and safety regulations. Uc and colleagues (Uc et al., 2005) studied 33 drivers with probable DAT of mild severity and 137 neurologically normal older adults using a battery of visual and cognitive tests and were asked to report detection of specific landmarks and traffic signs along a segment of an experimental drive. The drivers with mild DAT identified significantly fewer landmarks and traffic signs and made more at-fault safety errors during the task than control subjects.

“The social animal”

“The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement” is a highly celebrated non-fiction book by American journalist David Brooks (Brooks, 2012), who is otherwise best known for his career with The New York Times. The book discusses what drives individual behaviour and decision-making.  Brooks asserts that people’s subconscious minds largely determine who they are and how they behave. He argues that deep internal emotions, the “mental sensations that happen to us”, establish the outward mindset that makes decisions such as career choices. Brooks describes the human brain as dependent on what he calls “scouts” running through a deeply complex neuronal network.

Ultimately, Brooks depicts human beings as driven by the universal feelings of loneliness and the need to belong—what he labels “the urge to merge.” He describes people going through “the loneliness loop” of internal isolation, engagement, and then isolation again. He states that people feel the continual need to be understood by others.

We are, above all, “social animals”, and this is of fundamental importance for wellbeing. For example, Prof. Mario Mendez and Prof. Facundo Manes write recently (Mendez and Manes, 2011), and the authors reviewing this important recent collection of papers on social cognition discuss social cognition dysfunction in a number of different clinical situations, and their potential to give rise to problems in social interactions, immoral or even corrupt behaviour.

Response to stress and resilience

“Resilience” refers to a person’s ability to adapt successfully to acute stress, trauma or more chronic forms of adversity. A resilient individual has thus been tested by adversity (Rutter, 2006) and continues to demonstrate adaptive psychological and physiological stress responses, or `psychobiological allostasis’ (McEwen, 2003; Charney, 2004).

The study of resilience, or stress-resistance, originated in the 1970s with a group of researchers who directed their attention to the investigation of children capable of progressing through normal development despite exposure to significant adversity (Masten, 2001). For many years, research focused on identifying the psychosocial determinants of stress resistance, such as positive emotions, the capacity for self-regulation, social competence with peers and a close bond with a primary caregiver, among other factors (Masten, 1998; Rutter, 1985).

The importance of resilience in policy in living well in dementia, and will be considered further in the final chapter, chapter 18.

Contextual learning

Context-dependence effects are pervasive in everyday cognition. When we perceive objects and colours, we always perceive these among other objects and colours. We listen and speak within other word streams, and every atom of meaning emerges from a background of meanings. Acting appropriately in social interactions requires the interpretation of explicit and implicit contextual clues that orient our responses toward being polite, to make a joke or point out an irony, to say or not say something. Cognitive science and neuroscience research have evidenced context-dependence effects in similar domains of visual perception, emotion, language,  and social cognition in both normal and neuropsychiatric conditions.

Context is important, as shown by the Ebbinghaus illusion which depicts two identical central circles, surrounded by rings of circles. Despite the fact that they are the same size, one circle is perceived as small and the other as big. The contextual information available (the surrounding circles) creates the perception that the center circles are different sizes. This is shown below.

Contextual effects are present at every level, from basic perception to social interaction. This means that we do not perceive objects or process cognitive events in an abstract and universal way. The specific significance of an object, emotion, word, or social situation depends on the contextual effects. During normal cognition, our brains do not process targets and contexts separately; rather, targets are in context.

circles

Behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia and the social context

The “behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia“ (bvFTD) is characterised by insidiously progressive changes in personality and social interaction that typically precede other cognitive deficits.  Patients may present with compulsiveness, perseverations, or stereotyped repetitive acts, loss of self-consciousness, diminished interest for activities or hobbies, or withdrawal and apathy.  Increased appetite with a tendency for sweet foods is common, and hypersexuality and hyperorality may develop, especially in the advanced stages of the disease.

Early diagnosis is difficult because behavioural problems, invariably reported by friends or family, dominate the clinical picture while cognitive functions are still relatively intact. This is why it is so important to appreciate that dementia does not equal memory problems in every single case (and this is discussed in chapter 18). People with bvFTD often score normally on the Mini-Mental State Examination (“MMSE”), and conventional structural brain imaging (CT and MRI) may not be sensitive to the early changes associated with bvFTD at all. Therefore, early diagnosis relies on clinical interviews and caregiver reports; it can be considerably difficult to distinguish bvFTD from primary psychiatric syndromes.

Patients with bvFTD are now reported consistently to demonstrate reliably deficits in several domains of social cognition such as recognising emotions in facial expressions, empathy processing, decision-making, figurative language, theory of mind, and interpersonal norms.  Little was known about the brains of such patients from an neuroimaging perspective. In particular, given the nature of the cognitive deficits demonstrated by these patients, the authors postulated that, relatively early in the course of the disease, the ventromedial (VMPFC) (or orbitofrontal) cortex is a major locus of dysfunction and that this may relate to the behavioural presentation of these patients clinically described in the individual case histories. A greater definition of the rôle of the ventral frontal cortex, especially given findings in the animal literature, in reversal learning and decision has been a highly influential tranche of research subsequently (Clark, Cools and Robbins, 2004).

At approximately the same time, Lough, Gregory and Hodges (2001) demonstrated relatively intact general neuropsychological and executive function, but extremely poor performance on tasks of theory of mind (ToM). This indicates a dissociation of social cognition and executive function suggesting that in psychiatric presentations of bv-FTD there may be a fundamental deficit in theory of mind independent of the level of executive function. The implications of this finding for diagnostic procedures and possible behavioural management are discussed.

Liu and colleagues (Liu et al., 2004) later compared the behavioral features and to investigate the neuroanatomical correlates of behavioral dysfunction in anatomically defined temporal and behavioural variants of frontotemporal dementia (tvFTD and bvFTD). Volumetric measurements of the frontal, anterior temporal, ventromedial frontal cortical (VMFC), and amygdala regions were made in 51 patients with FTD and 20 normal control subjects, as well as 22 patients with dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) who were used as dementia controls. FTD patients were classified as bvFTD or tvFTD based on the relative degree of frontal and anterior temporal volume loss compared with controls. Behavioural symptoms, cerebral volumes, and the relationship between them were examined across groups. Both variants of FTD showed significant increases in rates of elation, disinhibition, and aberrant motor behavior compared with DAT. The bvFTD group also showed more anxiety, apathy, and eating disorders, and tvFTD showed a higher prevalence of sleep disturbances than DAT. The only behaviours that differed significantly between bvFTD and tvFTD were apathy, greater in bvFTD, and sleep disorders, more frequent in tvFTD. BvFTD was associated with greater frontal atrophy and tvFTD was associated with more temporal and amygdala atrophy compared with AD, but both groups showed significant atrophy in the VMFC compared with DAT, which was not associated with VMFC atrophy. In FTD, the presence of many of the behavioral disorders was associated with decreased volume in right-hemispheric regions.

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), tensor-based morphometry (TBM), Lu et al. (Lu et al., 2013) was finally used to determine distinct patterns of atrophy between these three clinical groups. The authors concluded that The bvFTD, SV-PPA, and NF-PPA groups displayed distinct patterns of progressive atrophy over a one-year period that correspond well to the behavioral disturbances characteristic of the clinical syndromes. More specifically, the bvFTD group showed significant white matter contraction and presence of behavioral symptoms at baseline predicted significant volume loss of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. These areas of structural atrophy seem also to be correlated to functional deficits in the case of bvFTD, and now seem to suggest a dissociation in dysfunction even between reversal learning and decision learning deficits at a finer level.

Finally, to complete things, Bertoux and colleagues (Bertoux et al., 2012b) reported that gray matter volume within BA 9 in the medial prefrontal was correlated with scores on the emotion recognition subtest of the he social cognition and emotional assessment”, and the severity of apathetic symptoms in the apathy scale covaried with gray matter volume in the lateral prefrontal cortex (BA 44/45).

The “social context network model”

At a phenomenological level, context-based predictions make social cognition more efficient. Prototypical situations in the environment are represented in “context frames” that integrate information about the meanings of social targets (e.g., an emotional face, a speech) that are likely to appear in a specific scene with information about their relationships.

Ibañez and Manes (2012) proposed that there exists a cortical network that mediates the processing of such contextual associations. This social context network involves regions of the frontal, insular, and temporal cortices. They postulate that frontal areas (e.g., orbitofrontal cortex, lateral prefrontal cortex, superior orbital sulcus) update and associate ongoing contextual information in relation to episodic memory and target-context associations. The temporal regions (amygdala, hippocampus, perirhinal and para-hippocampal cortices) index the value learning of target-context associations. Finally, the insular cortex coordinates internal and external milieus in an internal motivational state. In this way, the insula would provide information integration from internal states and social contexts to produce a global feeling state.

The initial symptoms of FTD reflect the involvement of orbitofrontal cortex as well as the disruption of the rostral limbic system including the insula, the anterior cingulate cortex, the striatum, the amygdala, and the medial frontal lobes. This system is involved in a number of processes such as the evaluation of the motivational or emotional content of internal and external stimuli, error detection, response selection and decision-making, and subsequent regulation of context-dependent behaviours. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that patients with FTD show predominantly right frontal, anterior insular, and anterior cingulate deterioration, with pronounced orbitofrontal cortex atrophy. Additionally, some studies have reported correlations between behavioural symptoms and brain structures, suggesting that the right orbitofrontal cortex regulates behavior together with a predominantly right-side network involving the insula and striatum. In addition, voxel-based morphometry studies have shown that patients with bvFTD have significant gray matter loss in the anterior insula and in a variety of prefrontal areas.

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Preface to my book: “Living well with dementia: where the person meets the environment”



Volumetric MRI dementia

Volumetric MRI dementia

 Introduction

According to the Department of Health’s “Improving care for people with dementia” (2013), there are around 800,000 people with dementia in the UK, and the disease costs the economy £23 billion a year. By 2040, the number of people affected is expected to double – and the costs are likely to treble. There is no doubt therefore about the scale of the problem, and it needs the finest minds in showing leadership on how to enable individuals with dementia to live better, and indeed live well.  The Prime Minister’s Challenge on dementia (“Challenge”) (2012) set out a renewed ambition to go further and faster, building on progress made through the National Dementia Strategy, so that people with dementia, their carers and families get the services and support they need. This Challenge wished to address in particular certain issues, such as the observation that the number of people with dementia is increasing, that currently the diagnosis rates are thought to be low, and there is sadly a lack of awareness and skills needed to support people with dementia and their carers. Whilst it is possibly difficult to find a ‘miracle cure’ for dementia, it is a reasonable aspiration for individuals with dementia (and their immediates) to have as best a quality-of-life as possible, and it is not necessarily the case that subtle but significant improvements in quality-of-life will “cost the earth”.

It is intended that this book should not just of interest in the UK, as the problems in healthcare are relevant to all jurisdictions. Thinking about how society should respond does pose some jurisdiction-specific issues; for example, this book refers to legislation in the UK such as the Equality Act (2010) or the Mental Capacity Act (2005), or regulations in health and safety relevant to building design in the UK. However, a consideration of the global issues in public health leads one quickly to appreciate the complexity of the economic case for improving wellbeing in individuals in dementia and their immediates, and that there are many people who are genuinely interested. Whilst indeed there has been a lead through the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge (2012), it is clear that previous administrations in England have latterly decided to prioritise dementia as a public health priority (for example, the National Dementia Strategy, “Living well with dementia” (2009)).

The ‘ecosystem’ of interested parties is large, and it is striking that there are so many passionate ‘#dementiachallengers’ on Twitter daily for example who are always a source of contemporary information, enthusiasm and innovation. There are currently huge advances being made in research and policy, and it is only possible through dementia communities ‘working together’ to keep abreast of them all. For that reason, this book has necessarily had to include electronic references, and I have tried to maintain links as correct as up-to-date at the time of publication. However, please feel free to look for any related information anywhere, and please do not use this book as an authoritative source of information to rely on necessarily. This book is intended simply as an introduction to a vibrant field, and certainly please be guided by healthcare professionals regarding individual care. The text of this book provides general principles, which I hope you might find interesting.

NICE quality standard 30 on ‘supporting people to live well with dementia’

In April 2013, NICE published its quality standard 30 on ‘supporting people to live well with dementia’. This quality standard was intended to cover the care and support of people with dementia. It applies to all social care settings and services working with and caring for people with dementia.

NICE quality standards are supposed to describe high-priority areas for quality improvement in a defined care or service area. Each standard consists of a prioritised set of specific, concise and measurable statements. NICE quality standards draw on existing guidance, which provide an underpinning, comprehensive set of recommendations, and are designed to support the measurement of improvement.

The areas covered in this ‘quality standard’ includes:

Statement 1. People worried about possible dementia in themselves or someone they know can discuss their concerns, and the options of seeking a diagnosis, with someone with knowledge and expertise.

Statement 2. People with dementia, with the involvement of their carers, have choice and control in decisions affecting their care and support.

Statement 3. People with dementia participate, with the involvement of their carers, in a review of their needs and preferences when their circumstances change

Statement 4. People with dementia are enabled, with the involvement of their carers, to take part in leisure activities during their day based on individual interest and choice.

Statement 5. People with dementia are enabled, with the involvement of their carers, to maintain and develop relationships.

Statement 6. People with dementia are enabled, with the involvement of their carers, to access services that help maintain their physical and mental health and wellbeing.

Statement 7. People with dementia live in housing that meets their specific needs.

Statement 8. People with dementia have opportunities, with the involvement of their carers, to participate in and influence the design, planning, evaluation and delivery of services.

Statement 9. People with dementia are enabled, with the involvement of their carers, to access independent advocacy services.

Statement 10. People with dementia are enabled, with the involvement of their carers, to maintain and develop their involvement in and contribution to their community.

 Overview

The aim of this book was not to provide a prescriptive text for this quality standard. I hope the book will be useful for a ‘diverse audience’, in other words anyone interested in the diagnosis, investigation or management of dementia, with especial emphasis on improving wellbeing; such interested people might particularly include the general public, psychologists, innovation specialists,, psychiatrists, neurologists, geriatricians, general medical physicians, nurses, public health physicians, medical students, engineers, economists, psychologists, commissioners and hospital managers. It is therefore extremely hard to find all this information ‘in one place’, and it is hoped that this book will help to provide a much needed overview and to build bridges between different ‘silos’ of thinking.

The approach of the National Dementia Strategy: Living well with dementia (from the Department of Health) (2009) devotes the whole of its chapter 5 to the issue of living well with dementia. In the preceding chapter to this Strategy, chapter 4on ‘early diagnosis’, the approach described is obviously inclusive:

 “From our consultation, and based on a successful DH pilot and the DH cost- effectiveness case, it appears that new specialist services need to be commissioned to deliver good-quality early diagnosis and intervention. Such services would need to provide a simple single focus for referrals from primary care, and would work locally to stimulate understanding of dementia and referrals to the service. They would provide an inclusive service, working for people of all ages and from all ethnic backgrounds.”

A ‘timely diagnosis’ is only of benefit, it is felt if there is a ‘useful’ intervention in dementia: this is described in chapter 4 has having three essential components: making the diagnosis well, breaking the news of the diagnosis well to the individual with dementia and their immediates, and providing directly appropriate treatment, information, care and support for such individuals. This timely book is part of a drive to dispel the notion that ‘nothing can be done’ in the context of management of dementia, even if current pharmacological therapies might have limited efficacy. The book is an overview of the field, describing what ‘wellbeing’ actually means, and why it is important in the context of national policy. The book quickly establishes the importance of the ‘person’ in discussing dementia care, including independence, leisure and other activities, and, in the final stages, end-of-life care, which is a discussion which should not be avoided. No individual with dementia should be abandoned in relation to his or her environment, and indeed there is much evidence to support the idea that the environment can be optimised to improve the wellbeing of an individual with dementia and his/her immediates. Considerations include home and ward design, the use of assistive technologies and telecare, and the ‘built environment’. A constructive interaction of an individual with his or her environment is clearly vital, and this includes understanding communication issues, how to champion the rights of an individual living well with dementia through independent advocacy, and the way in which ‘dementia friendly communities’ can be supported.

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. What is “living well with dementia”?
  3. Measuring living well with dementia
  4. Socio-economic arguments for promoting living well with dementia
  5. A public health perspective on living well in dementia, and the debate over screening
  6. The relevance of the person for living well with dementia
  7. Leisure activities and living well with dementia
  8. Maintaining wellbeing in end-of-life care for living well with dementia
  9. Living well with specific types of dementia: a cognitive neurology perspective
  10. General activities which encourage wellbeing.
  11. Decision-making and an introduction to advocacy in living well with dementia
  12. Communication and living well with dementia
  13. Home and ward design to promote living well with dementia
  14. Assistive technology and living well with dementia
  15. Ambient-assisted living well with dementia
  16. The importance of built environments for living well with dementia
  17. Dementia-friendly communities and living well with dementia
  18. Conclusion

Chapter synopses

It is possible to read each chapter in this book independently, and indeed each chapter is independently referenced.

Chapter 2 is an introduction to the whole book. Introduces the concept of what is like to ‘live well with dementia’. Investigating wellbeing has broadened the scope of previously overly narrow approaches to healthcare, in measuring outcomes. This chapter also introduces the idea that it is grossly unfair to consider ‘dementia’ as an unitary diagnosis, as in fact the term is a portmanteau of hundreds of different conditions at least. There has been a growing trend that ‘dementia’ and ‘memory problems’ are entirely synonymous, and this has added unnecessary noise to the debate. Dementia care is currently done in a number of different settings, and assisted living may be of increasing relevance in a drive to encourage individuals to live well independently with dementia.

Chapter 3 presents the formidable challenges of how ‘living well’ might be measured in general. There are issues about how quality of life measures change as a dementia progresses, what the relationship might be between wellbeing and physical health, and how wellbeing in dementia should be measured accurately at all.

Chapter 4 looks at the current socio-economic arguments for promoting a wellbeing approach in dementia. There are a number of converging cases for considering wellbeing, such as the economic case, the ethical case and a case based on social equality. While resources are limited, serious considerations have to be made as to which interventions are truly cost-effective, including of course the assistive technologies.

Chapter 5 presents the background for dementia as a public health issue in the UK. There is also a very active debate as to whether one should ‘screen’ for dementia. A core aim of the National Dementia Strategy (1999) is therefore to ensure that effective services for early diagnosis and intervention are available for all on a nationwide basis. It is argued, in this Strategy, that “the evidence available also points strongly to the value of early diagnosis and intervention to improve quality of life and to delay or prevent unnecessary admissions into care homes.”

Chapter 6 considers how and why being a ‘person’ has become so central to living well with dementia in academic and practitioner circles. In a way, the approach of ‘person-centred care’ is a historic one, but it has been a consistent strand of English health policy developing into contemporaneous views of integrated and whole-person care. This chapter also introduces ‘personhood’, and the approach of ‘dementia care approach’.

Chapter 7 addresses the specific rôle of leisure activities for an individual with dementia. Leisure activities are generally considered for many to be beneficial for the mental and physical wellbeing of individuals with dementia, and there are specific problems to be addressed such as the reported levels of relative inactivity in care homes.

Chapter 8 details how wellbeing is relevant also to end-of-life in dementia. This chapter considers the importance of support for carers, for the wellbeing of individuals with dementia and their carers. This chapter considers where optimal care could be given for individuals with dementia, the contribution of medication, but how it is vital to address specific issues in advanced dementia which have a direct impact on wellbeing (such as pain control).

Chapter 9 identifies that it is in fact it is impossible to consider dementia as a unitary diagnosis, and that specific forms of dementia can present their own formidable demands and issues. This chapter considers in detail how and why memory problems can be a presenting feature of dementia of the Alzheimer type, and the implications for interventions in wayfinding which could rationally improve wellbeing in such patients. The chapter also includes recent elegant work about the neural networks which are hypothesised to be important in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia, and how this “social context network model” fundamentally affects our notion of wellbeing in such individuals.

Chapter 10 introduces ‘general activities which encourage wellbeing’, in a first chapter on the possibility of “assistive technologies” in enabling individuals with dementia to live well. Certain memories can be particularly potent in the dementia of the Alzheimer Type, and, whilst the ‘jury is possibly out’ on the validity of reminiscence therapy, the chapter discusses the possible benefits of the CIRCA project on the wellbeing of individuals with dementia. Other activities are also considered; how they may help wellbeing, such as dancing, exercise, and music.

Chapter 11 takes up an important theme in living well with dementia; that is empowering the invididual to make decisions, the law relating to capacity, and how independent advocacy services have a beneficial rôle to play. Independent dementia advocacy is a critical area of a statement in NICE QS30, and this chapter reviews types of advocacy (and its relevance to wellbeing and person-centred care), the current mental capacity legislation, and the crucial importance of diversity and equality in policy.

Chapter 12 explains why good communication is so crucial in the setting of individuals living well with, but not simply restricted to healthcare professionals. This not only appears to be in terms of providing information about the condition locally, but also face-to-face communication with people living well with dementia. This chapter looks in detail at both verbal and non-verbal methods of communication, with a view to raising awareness of their impact on living well with dementia.

Chapter 13 analyses the importance of home and ward design for improving wellbeing in dementia. ‘Therapeutic design’ is a central philosophy of good design, and this chapter has as its focus a number of different setting. General principles are described as how to wellbeing can be improved through careful design of certain parts of the house (such as balconies, bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms and dining rooms), and considers the neuroscience of sensory considerations at play (for example in lighting and vision, and sound and hearing.)

Chapter 14 is the first of two chapters on ‘assistive technologies’ in dementia, providing an overview of this important area for living well with dementia. This chapter explains what ‘assistive technology’ is, what its potential limitations are, the INDEPENDENT project, the importance of “telehealth” (and important ethical considerations), and the design of ‘smart homes’.

Chapter 15 is the second of two chapters on ‘assistive technologies’ in dementia, looking specifically at an approach called ‘ambient-assisted living’ (AAL). The rationale behind the use of AAL in improving wellbeing is explained, as well as the general issue of how to encourage adoption of innovations in an older population. Detailed examples of specific AAL projects in improving wellbeing are described including SOPRANO, COACH and NOCTURNAL.

Chapter 16 introduces the general emphasis on the ‘built environment’ setting, and how inclusivity still drives this area of work in living well with dementia. Ageing presents its own challenges including opportunities and threats, but this chapter focuses on the remarkable initiatives which have recently taken place in improving the outside environment for individuals with dementia. The chapter details the I’DGO project, and highlights the especial importance of inclusive design for furthering wellbeing in dementia outside environments.

Chapter 17 considers how an individual with dementia lives as part of the rest of a community and society, and policy initiatives which have sought to address this. The discussion is unexpectedly problematic about a need to define what a ‘community’ might be, but the chapter includes domestic and international approaches to the ‘dementia-friendly community’, including the RSA’s “Connected Communities” and WHO’s “age-friendly communities” initiatives. As a central policy plank which is thought to be critical for developing wellbeing in individuals with dementia and their immediates, this chapter considers why dementia-friendly communities are worth encouraging at all, why there is a societal need to involve individuals with dementia in their communities, what aspects individuals with dementia wish from such communities (including the “Four Cornerstones” model), and the benefits of “resilient communities”.

Further information

You are advised to look at specialty websites which are devoted to all the dementias (such as medical charities), which often have useful information factsheets and booklets. Also, the Department of Health and their ‘Dementia Challenge’ website is an impressive source of information. You are also advised to consult https://www.evidence.nhs.uk which has access to a number of useful contemporaneous clinical evidence sources. Online medical journals are also an excellent source of peer-reviewed research, such as the BMJ, the Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine.

 Looking to the future

 There are, of course, no “right answers” to many issues, and a wise person is a person who knows where to find relevant information. However, the sense of optimism and goodwill is a genuine one in UK health policy, regarding dementia. Whilst there will often be difficult debates regarding dementia such as “How willing should a GP be to make a diagnosis of dementia when a patient has only gone to see his GP because of a sore throat?” or “Should we look to research a drug which can immunise people against dementia?”, the fact there are so many bright people in the UK working in areas relating to dementia is a real credit to English health policy as it faces formidable challenges of its own.

References

Department of Health (2009). Living well with dementia: A National Dementia Strategy: Putting people first. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.  Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/168221/dh_094052.pdf.

Department of Health (2013) The Dementia Challenge. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.  Available at: http://dementiachallenge.dh.gov.uk

Department of Health (2013) Improving care for people with dementia. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-care-for-people-with-dementia

Department of Health (2012) The Prime Minister’s “Dementia Challenge”: Delivering major improvements in dementia care and research by 2015. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/improving-care-for-people-with-dementia

National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2013). Supporting people to live well with dementia (QS30). Available at: http://guidance.nice.org.uk/QS30.

UK government.  Mental Capacity Act (2005) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/9/contents

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