Dementia is a disease of a modern time, which brings us both, changes in the life of the individual struggling with the disease, as well as changes in the lives of the relatives and acquaintances of the person with dementia. Changes occur slowly, usually almost imperceptible at first but then they appear more frequently and with more power. An important awareness that relatives and acquaintances must have during dealing with dementia is knowing and to be aware that person suffering from dementia is not doing anything bad on purpose and their intentions are not always bad, sometimes it is just a consequence of the disease. Knowing this makes living with dementia easier.
In the theoretical part of the diploma thesis, I define the concept of dementia disease, most common types of dementia which are present in modern society and most common symptoms of early and advanced dementia. I dedicate a large part of the theoretical part of the thesis to the topic of relatives and dementia, where I also list the forms of assistance intended for both, people with dementia and their relatives, in home environment and in institutional care. I have been also researching the communication of relatives and acquaintances with a person with dementia. I was mainly interested in changes in communication when diagnosis of dementia was known and what kind of communication was used. I was also interested in what were the first signs of dementia that they knew that the diagnosis is dementia disease. One of the main points that I was interested in, during the research is also how dementia affect the lives of relatives and acquaintances. Based on the data obtained, I proposed methods and forms that would contribute to greater information and knowledge of dementia disease in the wider social environment.
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