I wonder if you know anything about dementia and delirium? In May, I went to an excellent training afternoon at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital on the subject and came away with some really helpful headlines.
What is delirium? The Alzheimers Society website tells you more at https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/daily-living/delirium - including explaining:
The symptoms of delirium will start suddenly and may come and go over the course of the day. They can be worse in the evening or at night. A person with delirium will show some of the following changes:
- Being more confused than normal
- Changes in alertness such as being either unusually sleepy or agitated
- Having a lack of concentration or becoming easily distracted.
- Becoming disorientated not knowing where they are or what day it is.
- Rambling speech.
- Showing changes in behaviour.
- Having disturbed patterns of sleeping and waking.
- Being prone to rapid swings in emotion.
- Experiencing hallucinations.
- Having abnormal or paranoid beliefs.
People with dementia have a 13-22% higher chance of developing delirium and delirium is treatable and preventable, so its important to be aware of it. Ask the question, Are they different today? and where theres concern, consider delirium.
Id strongly recommend watching two really clear, helpful 5 minute videos, called:
- 'What is delirium?' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPfZgBmcQB8
- 'How we can all be delirium ready' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hg1VP-Enw4
Heres a link to further information that the people who were presenting at the conference have made available to anyone, free of charge: https://www.stocktoninformationdirectory.org/kb5/stockton/directory/results.action?qt=delirium&term=&sorttype=field&sortfield=title
This includes the 'Delirium Wheel': https://search3.openobjects.com/mediamanager/stockton/directory/docs/delirium_wheel.pdf