Early Intervention

Identifying dementia at an early stage can help you to adjust positively to the changes you may experience.

How to identify dementia

Not all experiences of memory loss or confusion are the result of dementia. Always check with your doctor to test for the range of other illnesses that can cause memory loss or confusion, such as depression, infections, thyroid disease, diabetes – all of which can be treated and managed.

If none of these conditions is present, ask your doctor for an assessment or to refer you to a specialist for a detailed diagnosis. Getting information about the condition, seeking support and planning ahead about important financial, health and lifestyle decisions will help you to feel in control.

A number of medications are available which might slow down the process of dementia and keep you functioning at your best. It is worth considering these and other health and lifestyle interventions with your doctor.

What to do if you are diagnosed with dementia

When you are diagnosed with dementia, one of the first decisions you face is whether to seek more information about the illness. Understanding the illness can help you accept and live more positively with the changes you are experiencing.

In order to better understand dementia, you could:

• Talk to your doctor
• Ring the Dementia Helpline on 1800 100 500 to ask about the range of services and support for people with any type of dementia
• Talk to a counsellor at Alzheimer’s Australia. You can also look at their I Have Dementia help sheets
• Attend a ‘Living with Memory Loss’ group for people with dementia and their family members, run by Alzheimer’s Australia SA. These groups have a focus on living well with dementia
• Ring ACH Group to obtain your copy of Planning Ahead, free for people with dementia and their families. This will help you think through what information to look for, what services are available and what legal and lifestyle choices you can make now

ACH Group have a range of services available to support people living with memory loss. Click here for more information.

Keeping active, remaining involved in your hobbies, activities with family and friends, and trying out new social activities and services will assist you to stay in control and make decisions while you can.

Planning ahead

We all prefer to decide for ourselves where we live, how we manage our money, which doctor we go to, what medical treatment we will receive and which services we will have. However, a diagnosis of dementia does affect decision-making ability over time.

Planning ahead gives you the opportunity to influence what happens to you in the future when you lose the ability to make decisions for yourself or communicate your wishes. Considering future decisions as early as possible in the course of your illness allows you to stop worrying and live well.

You can choose to:

• Tell people close to you about your wishes
• Appoint people to make decisions on your behalf in the future
• Write down your preferences
• Do nothing and leave decisions to your family or the government

There are advantages and disadvantages to each of these preferences and it is good to discuss them with family, counsellors and legal practitioners. The important thing is that these choices are yours – and you can make them as early as you feel you need to.

Contact our team on (08) 8159 3477 for more information.