The process of acceptance of the disease

Each member of the family residence of a patient suffering from Alzheimer's is found to develop the various stages of pain by relying on their ability to adapt to the situation and the personal ability to accept the separation and the grief that this disease causes.

The path to accept the psychological disorder is similar to that of those who live a state of mourning: the reactions that characterize the development of a bereavement is a painful path characterized by some specific behaviors:

The Negation.
Family members refuse to believe that it is true what is happening to the sick and thus to them. The thought that accompanies them is: "you will be missed doctors, perhaps it is a passing thing."
This attitude drives the family to seek a new diagnosis, to develop innovative medicines, to develop appropriate rehabilitation services, or what is worse, to ask your beloved to return as it was before.
These feelings can last for varying periods depending on the resources of the family and the support that is offered.

The hyperactivity.
After passing the time of unbelief, the family tends to substitute for the sick and its difficulties: it is strong in him the anxiety of the future allaying the need to do to not think.
By acting in this way avoids the family to show himself and the other deficits of the patient by transpire that the situation is under control this behavior in addition to tire the family brings the patient to lose even before the capacity to isolate and from the reports social.

The anger.
The frustration that comes from the constant investment of energy that do not go out is often bitter disappointment, which in turn produces irritation, nervousness and anger.
The anger is often not given guidelines on who can not void or it is not the direct cause: to the sick, for example, which combines all the colors, do so without a post but only because of his illness, to those who assists in the care that can be more peaceful, because it is less time with the patient and has more energy available.

The sense of guilt.
The anger that sometimes arises from a sense of frustration can cause feelings of guilt for what he has said or done, because basically you love your dear or because it was grateful to those who are helping us.
The more numerous occasions that fuel irritation so the more the feelings of guilt and thus the psychological suffering of the family.

The impact of the disease on the caregiver

Assistance to a patient suffering from Alzheimer's in the family can cause depression, anxiety and other problems of physical and mental health.
The frequency of depression in the caregiver is about three times higher than people not involved in or to the normal population.
Some researchers reported the presence of clinical depression in 30-50% of family members. In addition, stress that the caregiver experienced in helping increase the risk of behaviors such as healthy little: a few hours of sleep, less food, little exercise.
However, not all are negative consequences of some family members report feelings of gratification, are proud of the new skills acquired and recognize that the experiences of Caregiving (term used to define the tasks and activities of assistance) has improved the relationship with your beloved.

The involvement of family assistance is important and changes over the period of the disease: dall'esordio responsibilities until the institutionalization or death of their beloved.

Who is the caregiver?

The Anglo-Saxon literature, this term refers to as "the one providing the care."

"informal caregiver" (also known as primary caregiver, may be his son, his spouse, more rarely, another family member or friend)
"formal caregiver (nurse or other professional).

The person in the family takes in the main task of care and assistance to the joint ill.

The time spent by caregivers to care can reach the equivalent of a working day, which means that in the most serious as a caregiver is not compatible with almost any job. Including surveillance activities \ surveillance is a long time that increases with the gradual progress of the disease.
The role of the family that takes care of, in Italy, is mainly done by women (73.8%), generally wives and daughters, and in severe cases, home to the sick at home (65%).
The caregivers are mostly of working age:

* The 30.95 was up to 45 years
* The 38.2% was between 46 and 60 years
* The 17.95 between 61 and 70 years
* 13% over 70 years

From the professional point of view 31.9% are retired, the housewife is 27.75, 20.65, the employee or teacher, craftsman or 5.75 and 4.45 dealer manager / trader, a total of paid workers that are 355 of the sample being examined. (data Censis 1999).

The family of the patient of Alzheimer

"The disease makes breakthrough in the peaceful snodarsi of the days in a family. Everything from that moment will never be the same: the life that proceeded relations between quiet, shared ideas, projects to be thinking and create together, you are shocked. Between us and the sick person's hours un'estraneo ...
The disease requires you to stop, think, are you, male alive today because they feel that will accompany you to the last: the impotence ... "

The family is the main support caring for patients suffering from Alzheimer-type dementia and other chronic diseases, in particular the family assumes the task of assisting a lunatic has to bear a heavy burden of care for the management of cognitive disorders and behavior.
Within the family, since the diagnosis, it provides a balance that evolves and adjusts with the progression of the disease and that can be put into crisis by events such as serious illness of the caregiver, the aggravation of behavioral disorders, l 'worsening health of the patient. The information on the nature of dementia, the capacity of the patient, interventions and strategies appropriate to put in play, network services and support groups are able to strengthen the family balance by reducing the negative impact on family assists.

Social impact of the disease: human and social costs

The disease, although in different ways, impose significant costs to society in terms of human mortality, quality of life of the patient and the mental and physical health of those who are called to assist. The traditional approach to the social costs of illness distinguishes between three main categories of costs: direct, indirect and intangible. (Drummond 1980)

direct means the expenses directly monetizzabili for the purchase of goods and services. Are the diagnostic procedure, the drug therapy, outpatient visits, programs for assistance in institutional structures, from hospital work from home (ADI) and from home for the household.

indirect are the result of a loss of resources. Home care provided by the family is valued economically as income lost from work related to both the patient and her family. Further considerations about the productivity of family members, to provide care to family, sees change their habits of life and work.

intangible: those costs which are expressed in terms of physical and psychological suffering of the patient and his family. Are those of higher social significance. Beyond the significant differences related to the objective conditions of the sick person, on average, three quarters of the day of the caregiver are absorbed by the tasks of care, which involves a considerable stress and mental fisco often "loaded" on a single family.

What is Alzheimer's? You can heal?

It is a degenerative brain that causes a progressive decline and global intellectual functions ... difficult words that resonate with the clang of an avalanche in the head and the heart of the family.
We are told that is not curable, that the course lasts about ten years, the last stage of the disease the person has the same cognitive faculties of a child for a few weeks ... The hope, after the diagnosis, leaving the way to despair.
Now began the knowledge that the person who loves you will sbiadendo a little at a time ... E 'unjust, unacceptable ... "

The disease of Alzheimer's strikes "physically" but one person wounded many others, first of all the family that takes care of ... then the operator will take the patient to some structure.
When we speak we speak of Alzheimer disease (from a clinical point of view), but little is still talking about those people forced to stop, to think to support the heavy load of care problems.

Studies conducted on the English reality show that almost 90% of dementia are assisted by family, on whose shoulders lies the burden of care entirely, but without adequate support from society. The demented person is mostly assisted at home and when the load becomes unsustainable welfare institutionalization of older becomes a choice almost compulsory. The House of Rest is thus a need to accommodate a senior in an advanced stage of dementia, with family members stressed and caught by feelings of guilt for having surrendered. From the perspective of the person with dementia, be included in a new environment and face unknown people and not emotionally significant leads in most cases a worsening of the disorder.

The importance of the family: lights and shadows

Alzheimer's disease, in addition to drug treatment, rehabilitation therapy and orientation to reality, reactivate mobility, the music and the other tools used to help the sick to keep alive his contact with the outside world, there are three elements who have the fundamental role of the pillar system, and that must be taken into consideration before any other: they are family, caregiver, and finally, of course, the patient himself.

During the conference Alzheimer X, which will read below the record, was highlighted on several occasions the importance of the role of the family in Alzheimer's disease. However, not always discusses some of the negative aspects of the patient living with his entourage. In fact, the interactions between these three elements will be crucial not only for his welfare but also in some cases for his malaise. There is no longer able to intervene actively in the affairs that affect his daily life, the patient is forced to passively accept decisions made for him by those who care. If such decisions are taken lovingly having in mind the good of the patient and respecting their dignity, they will feel supported, well connected to its past and will enjoy security and stability.

If the family or the caregiver does not accept the disease and not surround the patient with a 'soothing atmosphere must come to terms with defensive and often aggressive. When the caregiver is alien to a normal patient, it would be seen as an intruder or a threat against which seek to defend by attacking. Often, to escape from an environment that has become alien, flees. In most cases will go in search of his house that was a long time and that is usually the home of childhood.

When the caregiver is a family, the tensions that existed in the past implicitly or explicitly tend to worsen. The relative who does not accept the disease and can not explain the sudden hostility of the patient will seek to do this thinking, without realizing that he now belongs to a very different reality of his own. Or you let go of irritation reactions and sometimes frustration. A son or a daughter reluctantly accept the partial or total loss of their independence and sometimes react with impatience to forgetfulness, the grueling repetition of the patient or to acts of almost once a provocation. Old grudges do not disappear with the onset of the disease but are widening, and the past misunderstandings between mother and daughter or between father and son wake up, making the neighborhood difficult to bear. Both the caregiver that the patient will suffer, the latter being even more strongly the weight dell'accudimento and its isolation.

E 'therefore essential that the whole family take action, are also joining forces and participating in the care of the patient and understand that their is a global commitment, in which every member has a specific role to play. E 'is also critical that conscious of the negative effects of the disease on the behavior of their family, and that takes the necessary distance from the disease, to maintain its objectivity and balance their mental attitude is not always easy and often at the limit of endurance. However, the awareness and knowledge on how the disease may become a factor of harmony and elements of strengthening of the family. The patient will feel supported, then at any time of day, and can buy and keep the peace so valuable and so essential to an intuitive management of the disease.