Alzheimer's Disease Patient and Social Theory Essay

Alzheimer's Disease Patient and Social Theory - Essay Example The key points of this analysis are the medical background and history of the patient, the psychological and sociological factors affecting her and her health, and finally how the patient and those psychological and sociological factors fit into a larger theoretical and policy framework. About the Patient In the interests of maintaining confidentiality and respecting patient privacy, I will be referring to this patient as Mrs. X. Due to her rapidly deteriorating mental and physical condition, Mrs. X's residential care home was no longer capable of providing the nursing services she required, and she was subsequently transferred into the mental health ward. Mrs. X has vascular dementia or Alzheimer's disease and has been declared legally incompetent to make her own medical decisions. In addition, she is prone to mild absence seizures, causing disorientation and occasional falls, though they do not induce unconsciousness. She is receiving phenytoin to treat the seizures. Mrs. X's behavioural issues have progressively worsened to the point that she requires full care and constant monitoring. She will wander the halls of the ward at night screaming. Her husband believes that many of her mental issues are related to her lack of sleep, which does make her agitated and irritable during the day. She has difficulty communicating her needs, as she is completely non-verbal. This factor alone is greatly complicating her nursing care. Other complicating factors in Mrs. X's care are her dislike for the staff to attempt personal hygiene or care needs, and her refusal to comply with treatment regimens. For example, she was found to be refusing her medication by hiding pills in her mouth, and had to be switched to liquid suspensions. Psychological and Sociological Factors It is difficult to assess Mrs. X's psychological condition exactly, due to her dementia and non-verbal state; however, it is safe to say that she is clearly unhappy with the current situation. Th is is a concern, as a patient's psychological state is often directly related to their ability to heal when hurt or to keep themselves healthy in the first place (Gross, 2007). Even on the first layer of the Whitehead-Dahlgren model of psychological influences, her physical state of being, most effects on Mrs. X are strongly negative (Marks & Evans, 2005). She often seems unaware of her surroundings, becoming lost within the building, which is a traumatising event for her. This most often occurs at night when she wanders. Her sleeplessness is due to severe insomnia, a condition that further damages her poor psychological state. She is helpless to do anything for herself, unable even to eat, drink, or use the toilet without help. Even in her mentally compromised state, this level of dependence on others causes her a significant amount of distress. This is evidenced by her dislike mentioned earlier for staff members trying to attend to her personal care. She is in pain due to arthriti s and frequent constipation, which also negatively impacts her psychological well-being. On the second layer and third layers, her lifestyle factors and social networks, the situation is equally as poor (Marks & Evans, 2005). She upsets the other patients by screaming and yelling, with the result that she has very little positive social contact with them. She