Dementia Case Study
Wendy
Detailed Patient Background
Wendy is an elderly woman who was assessed using a known Dementia scale and was diagnosed with this in addition to concern if she has Depression and Anxiety with known unhappiness thinking about her health condition. She has been living with Dementia for a couple years and family secured a caregiver to assist her with her quality of life. Her diet has been a major component in her health plan as she has a tendency to eat high sugar foods when unattended and will leave food and drink out for an extended period of time before consumption. Her caregiver currently works to support her through purchasing healthy foods and meal prepping. Radect is a resource.
Radect's Impact
Wendy's current health program is solely centered on what her caregiver can do. This is a lot of pressure and responsibility on a sole individual. Radect Health offers a robust team that can not only take care of curating multiple health programs that all tie into Wendy's life goals.
Regarding her diet, our yoga ambassador and clinical dietician created a plan based on her previous eating history that takes into account her adherence to Kosher guidelines, a love of vegetables, and strategies for BMI and weight control. She also presented concerns about financial planning for the future impact of her condition and our team works with her to plan for best-case and worst-case scenarios.
Wendy's assigned yoga ambassador works with her caregiver to teach and work with her through daily mental and physical exercises, including improving range of motion, gait, and strength through yoga. Our yoga instructor reviewed functional health/abilities that could be causes of the change in mental status (i.e. trouble urinating) and incorporated them into the exercises and worksheets designed to reduce Wendy's stressors. These worksheets provide instruction outside of the online studio times in which our yoga ambassador consults directly with her via webcam.
Our yoga instructor supported by the mental health professional created a scale to differentiate depression and anxiety with dementia. We learn if Wendy has depression and anxiety and ways to better cope with presenting symptoms.
Her health management plan is developed in coordination with the responsibilities of her caregiver; ensuring a full team effort. The caregiver provides the Radect team with feedback in our direct messaging system, allowing for real-time alterations to take place to the program. Her plan, like all of our members, is personalized to her life and goals. This includes plans for sleep and social activities. Her data record is kept and authorized to be reviewed by her physician to keep them in the loop as well on what prescribed treatments are seeing significant improvements or not.
Informed health decisions lead to a better quality of life. We believe data is the answer to this, while ensuring that every plan is created based on the member's life.