How to Utilize Medical Professionals to Ease Pain in Seniors and Enhance Their Dementia Care Plan

Steps Taken to Ensure Patient Comfort

One of the most important things that you can do to ensure that a senior is getting the most out of their dementia care plan is to take steps to ensure that they are getting the right medications and that underlying conditions are being treated in the proper manner. The US National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Medicine (NCBI) states that pain management and the assessment of pain is one of the biggest contributors to being prescribed antipsychotic medications in patients who don’t actually need them. This is because when pain is not managed properly in a patient that also has Alzheimer’s or is part of a dementia care plan, they cannot always express their symptoms or the pain that they are in. This can cause non-verbal behavioral issues and create a pattern of behavioral symptoms that are then misdiagnosed for something else.

What Is Being Done to Prevent Misdiagnosis and Improve Pain Management

One way to make sure seniors with Alzheimer’s and other similar diseases are getting the best treatment is by working with a PCP (Primary Care Practitioner). PCPs are licensed to provide medical guidance to address pain, specifically, as part of the dementia care plan. Additionally, they also will work with clients with memory-related illnesses to determine what kind of medication will be best for them. Medical professionals are committed to making sure that Alzheimer’s and dementia patients get the care that they need and deserve, even though some of these individuals are unable to reliably convey their symptoms or how medications make them feel. Aside from pain, some of the issues that they pay special attention to are anxiety, depression and other pain related conditions.

Testing Without Speaking

Because dementia care plan patients can not always report their symptoms, medical professionals may choose to have their patient’s blood analyzed in their lab in order to determine which medication is best. By monitoring the of the blood to see how it metabolizes prescribed medication, PCPs can determine which medications have the best effect and which works most efficiently at a biological level. This allows the patient that cannot speak or convey their symptoms or those that cannot be mindful of their own medications, to get the most of the medication that they take.

Reference: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3817007/

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