What is dementia? Well, to the people who have it, it’s something that slowly robs them of their memories and the essence of who they are. Officially speaking, it’s an umbrella term that covers a range of different types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal, Lewy Bodies and Vascular varieties.
As dementia online courses will teach you, the stages of the disease are denoted under the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), which is used to help guide doctors in assessing the best type of care necessary. Of course, not everyone’s illness will progress in the same way, but these seven categories essentially cover everyone with the disease.
By sticking with us and reading on, you’ll learn the seven stages of dementia and how online dementia courses can be used to improve your knowledge of the condition. So, we'll get started if you’ve got your pen and paper ready.
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Stage 1 - No Dementia
In the beginning, the illness can exist with no apparent symptoms to speak of. Free online courses and other resources provided by bodies like Dementia Australia are there to help the general public understand what to look out for.
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Stage 2 - Minor Decline in Cognition
Next, patients tend to experience a barely noticeable decline in cognition that can be passed off as simply being forgetful. It’s often overlooked as a result.
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Stage 3 - Mild Decline in Cognition
The next point you’ll learn about in dementia courses is stage three, which is characterised by a worsening of forgetfulness accompanied by difficulty in talking and concentrating.
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Stage 4 - Early Stage Dementia
Stage four is also referred to as early-stage dementia, where professionals can measure cognitive decline and memory, focus and speech issues worsen. Daily tasks also start to become a problem.
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Stage 5 - Moderate Decline in Cognition
Next comes stage five, where major memory problems begin, and assistance will likely be required to help the patient complete daily tasks.
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Stage 6 - Severe Decline in Cognition
As dementia courses online show us, at stage six, the effects of the illness become profound. Here, both short and long-term memory becomes affected, with anxiety and bladder control problems occurring.
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Stage 7 - Late Stage Dementia
Notable because of a severe decline in cognition, stage seven is the final one of the disease. Communication becomes almost impossible, and 24-hour care is likely necessary.
It can be a miserable illness for both patients and relatives, and your job as an aged care worker is to allow them to live as normal a life as possible. Knowing what each stage presents is crucial to know how much assistance a person with dementia needs, and as you can see, those needs change as the disease progresses.
Let Flexible Video-based Micro-Learning Improve Your Skills
Dementia is an incredibly complex and challenging disease to cope with as a patient and carer, but thanks to courses like our Supporting People With Dementia course, it’s never been easier to improve your knowledge as an aged care worker or family relative.
This, like all of our training, is CPD-approved, created in conjunction with leading industry experts and delivered 100% online - something you can find out more about by visiting us at www.onlinecoursesaustralia.edu.au.
However, if you’d like to discuss your needs with a friendly member of our team, you can do just that by calling us today on 1300 611 404.
