Idosos com demências: impactos na qualidade de vida dos cuidadores leigos

Abstract

Dementias, such as the Alzheimer, are among the irreversiblefactors that mostly impact on the elderlies quality of life and are related as one of the problems of health policies in Brazil. Characterized by the loss of cognitive and emotional abilitiesand affecting mainly the elderlies, they affect the quality of life of all people involved in the situation. Alzheimer's disease is a condition that develops slowly and gradually and will interfere with the physical, mental and social wellbeing of the elderly, gradually leading him unable to perform daily tasksreaching to the total dependence. Being the fastest growing age group in the world, the elderlies - individuals aged 60 or more - it is essential that the attention will be turned to this population and studies must be accomplished involving the context of these people's lives, so the longevity shall be enjoyed as something more than simply adding years to life. As important as living longer, living is enjoying wellbeing and its essential that the extra years mustnt be a burden for the family and to the elderly itself.An effective measure in this context is the provision of care performed by properly trained caregiver. Aiming this, this study was developed by literature research, in the form of a narrative review with the goal of arguing the dementias, especially Alzheimer's disease, highlighting the work of lay caregivers and impacts resulted from the sick elderlies care. Literature surveys were made on the Internet, using the databases Lilacs and Scielo, in search for articles on the subject. The reason for this study is related to the increased life expectancy and its consequences for the population and government agencies, and the result of the study shows that the demented elderly care home require a restructuring to collaborate with the work of caregiver and mitigate the negative impacts of caregivers in their quality of life.