Dementia Care & Support Services | Phoenix Support Kent

We can offer dementia care and support

With many years of collective experience in this area, we can offer dementia care and support based on the person-centred way in which we work as an organisation. Whether this is for someone living at home who needs support with personal care, cooking, washing, cleaning or community access or in a residential care home where someone needs support to go out or on holiday - we can help!

What is Dementia?

Dementia is a term used to describe lots of diseases, these are vast in number, but the most common terms diagnosed are Alzheimer’s disease, Vascular Dementia and Dementia with Lewy bodies.

Although these conditions are similar, the dementia may vary and the journey can be very different.

We understand better than most that coming to terms with a diagnosis of Dementia is a worrying and upsetting time for anyone, but the earlier this can be diagnosed the easier the road can be, we can help with every step of the journey.

Recognising signs of change in people you are close to can be a worrying time, but not recognising them or not understanding why they are occuring may be more damaging in the long term.

Things to look out for may include in the early stages things such as:

Forgetting recent things they did
Being less interested in activities or taking less care of themselves
Being reluctant to try new things
Being less able to make decisions or plans
Becoming slower to understand ideas
Showing a tendency to accuse others of ‘hiding’ or ‘stealing’ items
Becoming increasingly self-centred
Losing the ability to concentrate
Becoming restless and unsettled

A smiling woman supports an older woman as she prepares food at a kitchen table.

Advanced Dementia Symptoms

In later stages of Dementia or as the disease progresses you may notice more changes some advanced symptoms to be aware of could include;

Appear to have a change of personality
Suffer mood changes, becoming withdrawn, sad, anxious or sometimes angry
Repeat words, phrases or actions
Forgetting recent events and conversations
Lose reading and writing skills
Getting lost within a familiar environment
Neglect hygiene or eating
See or hear things that are not there
Incontinence

Partners & Accreditations

A caregiver helps an older woman wearing headphones use a tablet at a table.

Alzheimer's disease

This is the most common form of dementia and causes loss of nerve cells in the brain. Over time all functions and activities, may become impaired as the brain shrinks.

Alzheimer’s particularly impacts on awareness of time and place people may become disorientated and restless. The ability of those with Alzheimer’s may gradually deteriorate and becomes worse as times passes.

Korsakoff’s syndrome

Korsakoff’s syndrome is a brain disorder usually associated with heavy alcohol consumption over a long period of time. People with the condition experience loss of short-term memory.

Vascular dementia

By contrast, Vascular dementia is caused by strokes or the interruption of the blood supply to specific parts of the brain this can result in permanent brain damage.

Typically an older person will have a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) or a mini stroke often at night. People may recover a little but then this TIA may occur again causing further deterioration.

Dementia with Lewy bodies

This affects fewer people than Alzheimer’s disease or Vascular dementia. Lewy bodies are tiny protein deposits found in brain cells that block the action of chemical messengers, crucial for normal brain function.

People with this type of dementia can be very different from one minute to the next, and visual hallucinations are common. Those affected may have difficulties with balance, which makes them more prone to a fall. People may often have a tremor as with Parkinson's, up to a third of people with Parkinson’s will develop dementia.