How are care givers supported to cope with the progressive nature of Down's syndrome and dementia.

How are care givers supported to cope with the progressive nature of Down syndrome and dementia.

A literature search was conducted and literature accessed between 1998 to 2012 from UK and other Europeans Countries. The following databases were accessed, Cinhal, Medline, Cochrane Library, Geriatric Psychiatry journal Pubmed, Wiley-Blackwell publishers, Google Scholar. The key words used were, Learning Disability, Down's syndrome, dementia, assessment, care & support. Over thirty articles were found which were on Down's syndrome, Dementia, and other conditions. Some were not relevant to the topic. However these articles were chosen in order of relevance to the topic. In total over 20 articles were chosen, and were narrowed down; only two appropriate articles concerned with UK were found.

Ten articles regarding Down's syndrome and dementia were selected as the most appropriate. The two articles for critique were selected because one was about the screening project for people with Down's syndrome given the increased prevelence of early onset of dementia by Jarvis & Prinsloo (2007), the second article by Cairns and Lamb (2010) was chosen because it is a reflection on how patients are screened and diagnosed with dementia.

Critique of Literature

The literature for the current topic has been extracted from the Research by Jervis N and Prinsloo L (2007), regarding how people develop a multidisciplinary screening project for people with Down Syndrome given the increased prevalence of early onset dementia. It also includes the outcomes of research conducted by Cairns V., Lamb I and Smith E (2010) Reflection upon the dementia screening services for individual with Down's syndrome across the Hyndburn and Ribble V alley Area.

Patel et al. (1993), in addition, highlighted a less or no understanding of the signs of psychiatric disorders like dementia on the part of their carers in this population. This was done along with other hardships in the diagnosis and detection, and has made positive contribution to the general inefficiency in the provision of services. These illustrations support and shed light over the significant requirements for the provision of services that render the purpose of dealing with matters of effective treatment planning and early diagnosis for people who have learning disability and are aging. He also suggests the requirement of training and educating the carers and families of people with learning disabilities. It is recommended by the Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities (Turk et al. 2001) and has also been mentioned in the good practice guidance, that there should be strong baseline evaluation for all the people suffering with the Down's syndrome and these assessments should be on the basis of their social and cognitive functioning in early adult life or by the time they reach 30 years of age.

In several other areas of country, the professionals have taken initiatives to execute the projects addressing their experiences, needs and findings that are now being reported. Jervis & Prinsloo (2007) describes one of the examples for this and reflects upon and ...