Understanding what is happening to them

Fundamental to the care at Gianna Homes is understanding the illness each resident actually has. The same understanding helps a family enormously, and most families arrive without it because nobody sat down and explained.

This page is the explanation, plus the places worth reading that are not us.

You do not need a relative living here to call and ask a question about dementia. People do it, and nobody is put on a list for it.

What dementia actually is

Dementia is the loss of intellectual functions — remembering, reasoning — severe enough to interfere with daily life. It is not itself a disease. It is a group of symptoms that can accompany a number of diseases and conditions, and how fast it progresses depends both on the cause and on the person.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause. Others include multi-infarct dementia, Huntington’s disease and sometimes Parkinson’s. Dementia can also follow a stroke, a head injury, brain disease, or heavy alcohol and drug use. It is not a normal part of ageing.

Some dementias are acute — metabolic or systemic in origin — and those can respond to treatment, sometimes reversing. Chronic dementias rarely do, because the damage to brain tissue is structural and permanent. Dr Alois Alzheimer first described the disease that carries his name in 1907.

Behaviour is not random

There is a direct line between the disease someone has and the behaviour you are seeing. It follows the course of the illness, and it is made worse by terror, confusion, frustration and being misunderstood.

Which is why anyone caring for a person with dementia — family or professional — has to learn the person before they can treat the behaviour. These are the questions Gianna asks first:

• Who is the man or woman?
• What is important to him or her?
• Do they perceive things differently from me?
• How do they feel?
• What were their personality, habits, routines, hobbies and passions?
• What is their family history?