Editorial: Language and culture: Nurses positioned to lead hospital care for people living with dementia

Abstract

One of the most complex groups of patients in hospital are people living with dementia, with 71% in the highest category of clinical complexity (AIHW, 2019). In Australia in 2016–17, there were around 95,000 hospitalisations of people with a diagnosis of dementia, with most presenting through emergency departments for injury, poisoning or leg fracture (AIHW, 2019). Dementia is an organic disease of the brain, emerging as a pattern of cognitive decline, resulting in one or more of amnesia, aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, dyspraxia, spatial disorientation, and other features (LoGiudice & Flicker, 2014). Pathophysiological changes in the brain caused by dementia can have a significant impact on a person’s ability to perceive information within their immediate environment, process ideas logically, and recall information (LoGiudice & Flicker, 2014). Sometimes, people living with dementia will display behaviours such as aggression, irritability, night-time disturbances, aberrant motor behaviour and disinhibition (Hessler et al., 2018), widely recognised as behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) (Finkel, 2000).