Dementia: Not always Alzheimer's - MayoClinic.com
Article outlines a number of different types of dementia with links to in depth information. It concludes that a diagnosis is essemtial as knowing the likely cause of dementia is the first step to treating it....
how many carers do not pursue a diagnosis for their loved ones and so deny them the chance of effective treatment?Dementia: Not always Alzheimer's - MayoClinic.com: "Dementia is a neurological disorder that affects your ability to think, speak, reason, remember and move. While Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, many other conditions also cause these symptoms. Some of these disorders get worse with time and cannot be cured. Other types can be treated and reversed.
The three most common forms of dementia are Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia."
Health criteria strip old and infirm of free care
Already a huge worry to the families and those caring for the elderly and disabled the issue of having to pay for care is becoming an ever increasing burdon on top of the problems associated with coping with long term illness, and disability..
SocietyGuardian.co.uk | Society | Health criteria strip old and infirm of free care: "Health criteria strip old and infirm of free care
� Draft proposals toughen eligibility assessments
� MP claims 70,000 a year sell homes to pay for help..
The Guardian has obtained a leaked document suggesting criteria for deciding who among the old and infirm qualifies for free NHS "continuing" care. Ministers want standardised tests to address what they have called a "postcode lottery". But it is claimed that the proposals would also sharply reduce the number of patients eligible for free NHS continuing care.
Officials say a harsher assessment regime outlined in the document would force many more families to rely on local authority supplied "social care", which is subject to means testing. That would push more vulnerable people into a parallel system that is itself under unprecedented pressure from debts of £1.7bn.
...A senior social services source said: "We are taking this very seriously. This would effectively be the end of the NHS for older and severely disabled people."
Decisions about who qualifies for care are taken by health trusts using government guidance and the "Coughlan test", which determines whether care is provided by a local council and means tested, or free of charge by the NHS."
GMTV - Alzheimer's agony
Watching Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street has been particularly hard for P as it is scheduled for 2 of nights he looks after H. However, true to the nature of Alzheimers H does not realise that he and Baldwin are suffering the same symptoms.
GMTV have picked up on the story line with some sympathetic coverage today and their site provides all the useful liks carers may need.
GMTV - Alzheimer's agony: "the current plight of Coronation Street character Mike Baldwin emphasises how devastating Alzheimer's can be"
I have found tthe script writing and acting to be absolutly spot on - even down to the fly away hair and soft smile when Mike has his hair combed. Touching
