Volume 14, Issue 6: Dementia – making sense of the confusion

Dementia – making sense of the confusion

It is a drizzly Sunday morning on the early shift. You and your crewmate are eating a hasty breakfast when you receive your first dispatch to an 83-year-old female, Irene, who has fallen at home. On assessment Irene appears not to be injured but cannot remember how she fell – would it be safer to take her to hospital?

CPD benefit

Around 55 million people worldwide are currently living with dementia, including around 944,000 in the UK. This article outlines the signs and symptoms and pathophysiology of dementia across different forms of the disease. It also discusses ambulance attendance, callouts for patients with dementia are frequent and assessment can be very challenging. However, ambulance services play a key role in delivering care for this group. There is guidance given on how to provide high quality, person-centred care in the pre-hospital setting that addresses medical and social needs. This will enable you to assess and manage patients to ensure they are safe and pain-free, identifying unmet needs and advocating with other health professionals.