Jan 08, 2014 – Needs

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ANCHOR LEAD: DEMENTIA PATIENTS HAVE A RANGE OF UNMET NEEDS, ELIZABETH TRACEY REPORTS

Most patients with dementia who live at home have a number of unmet needs that could seriously compromise their health. Now a study by Constantine Lyketsos and colleagues at Johns Hopkins specifically identifies which needs are unmet and how to meet them. LYKETSOS: The most common ones relate to safety issues, safety say, in the bathroom and the shower, all the way to safety in taking your medications properly. Other unmet needs, which is somewhat surprising to us, is that they’re not receiving proper primary care. It’s not that they don’t have a primary care doctor it’s just that they don’t go, or they can’t follow the instructions properly. That need we believe is really critical because when you get sick and you have dementia you are much more likely to be hospitalized because you presented for help way too late. :32

Lyketsos says identifying and meeting unmet needs helps both caregivers and people with dementia. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.