Practitioner Values in Dementia - Portfolio 1 Essay

Practitioner Values in Dementia - Portfolio 1 - Essay Example 1). It will also look at values and government legislations as ethical basis for healthcare. People with dementia are losing their memory, especially those that are aging (US National Library of Medicine, 2012, p. 1). The dysfunction in their brain has serious effect to their memory and their ability to communicate. Though this illness is common among elderly, but this is not normal for all of those that are aging (US National Library of Medicine, 2012, p. 1). Whitehouse,  Price,  Struble,  Clark,  Coyle,  and Delon (1982) explained memory loss of patient with dementia and Alzheimer based on evidences indicating that the nucleus basalis of Meynert, a distinct population of basal forebrain neurons, is the source of cholinergic innervation of the cerebral cortex (pp. 1237-1239). Post-mortem research illustrated the profound reduction in the presynaptic markers for cholinergic neurons in the cortex of patients with Alzheimer's disease and senile dementia of the Alzheimer's typ e (Whitehouse et al., 1982, pp. 1237-1239). Research further bared that memory loss is associated to that neurons of the nucleus basalis of Meynert which undergo a profound and selective degeneration at more than 75% in these patients and provide a pathological substrate of the cholinergic deficiency in their brains (Whitehouse et al., 1982, pp. 1237-1239). Demonstration of selective degeneration of such neurons represents the first documentation of a loss of a transmitter-specific neuronal population in a major disorder of higher cortical function and, as such, points to a critical subcortical lesion in Alzheimer's patients (Whitehouse et al., 1982, pp. 1237-1239). Recent analysis of the National Institute on Aging (NIA), involving representative sample of Health and Retirement Study (HRS), bared that health care for people with dementia have increasing emotional and physical demands (Vaughn, 2013, p. 1). Thus, add to the financial burden for care. It also inspires the National Hea lth Institute to find effective treatment for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, too (Vaughn, 2013, p. 1). Through NAPA, health expert established and enforced National Plan to Address Alzheimer’s Disease the institution also capitalized on research and development of BRAIN initiative, with the support of the president, to generate approaches to broaden our understanding on the neurological disorders, inclusive of neurological disorders and Alzheimer (Vaughn, 2013, p. 1). Dementia is an illness that could be genetically inherited by offspring from their elders or parents. Alzheimer is considered as the worst form of dementia which may appear at 65 years of age or further (Alzheimers.org, 2013b, p. 1). Hence, health practitioners call this a familial disease. Vascular and fronto-temporal dementias are other forms of dementia (Alzheimers.org, 2013b, p. 1). The first can be developed by high cholesterol levels in their bodies. Other milder forms of dementia which can be de tected at an earlier age are dementia with Lewy bodies, Down’s syndrome, and Huntington’s disease (Alzheimers.org, 2013b, p. 1) Medical experts admitted difficulty in determining the cost of dementia care, both in formal and informal setting, because majority of those who suffered in this illness has also multiple medical