The Impact of the Increasing Number of Individuals with Dementia Coursework

The Impact of the Increasing Number of Individuals with Dementia - Coursework Example According to the last audit report, about 560,000 people in England are suffering from dementia, and from the steeply rising trend, it is expected that in the coming 5 years, this number would escalate to a far higher range leading to an enormous burden on the NHS economy. It is unfortunate that despite the critical nature of this problem, dementia care is not an NHS priority, and consequently, most of the problem now is handled by social care. Therefore, as a social care professional, this ever-increasing incidence of dementia will have an impact on practice.   A focus group study reveals that the trend of having more and more affected individuals is clear. With the advance of medicine, the society of the country is primarily an aged society due to the change in longevity and public health. Although often told about the elderly, it must be remembered that in some cases, the disease arises at the age of 45 or so, where the impact of the problem may be severe and particularly devast ating due to impact on employment, income, and expected life course. With an individual with a diagnosis of dementia, at least initially, the family provides the majority of care, and they are bound to be burdened increasingly as the life course of the disease become progressive. In many cases, the health system forces indirectly the caregivers at home to utilize their own funds for different supports available leading to increased financial costs for care. Social work where the focus and skills of the profession related directly to the individual, his environment, and the interactions between these two could be the best profession to serve this growing population of dementia individuals and their caregivers (Department of Health, 2006).Although historically, dementia care began as a part of psychiatric nursing, it was gradually and increasingly being understood that care of these older people with dementia involving the network of their family members was a different work, which ma y aptly be called psychogeriatric. The early role description from research indicated some unique features, which are "the value of experience in working with people with dementia and their families; a knowledge of dementia and its likely course; attention to the personal care needs of people with dementia; information-sharing with families; promotion of autonomy for people with dementia; maintaining regular visits and contact; establishing trust with both the person with dementia and their family; and service coordination".