Huntington's Disease

[Guest]

I am a Director of Nurses in a long-term care facility in Texas. We have a resident who has Huntington's Chorea and I need to access some inserv ice material about the behaviors that the Nurses and the C.N.A's should expect. The staff here have never dealt with this disease and are scared of the resident. I need to be able to reassure tham and educate them of what is to be expected to come with the progression of this disease in residents.

[Guest]

I am really glad to see that you hvae an interest in such issues. i would suggest forst by reading about HD on the Neurologychannel website, and by contacting the Huntingtons disease associations in your area. As you probably are aware, in addition to the chorea, there are many different psychiatric manifestations of HD, that often require behavioral intervention and work from a team that may include a neurologist, psychiatrist, nursing specialists, social workers to help the family etc. Good luck.
[quote] I am a Director of Nurses in a long-term care facility in Texas. We have a resident who has Huntington's Chorea and I need to access some inserv ice material about the behaviors that the Nurses and the C... [/quote]

[Guest]

I applaud your interest in the best of the patient. It is always commendable when people of this world take the extra time to make someone elses life a little bit easier and a little more understood!
[quote] I am a Director of Nurses in a long-term care facility in Texas. We have a resident who has Huntington's Chorea and I need to access some inserv ice material about the behaviors that the Nurses and the C... [/quote]

[Guest]

I applaud your interest in the best of the patient. It is always commendable when people of this world take the extra time to make someone elses life a little bit easier and a little more understood!
[quote] I am a Director of Nurses in a long-term care facility in Texas. We have a resident who has Huntington's Chorea and I need to access some inserv ice material about the behaviors that the Nurses and the C... [/quote]

[Guest]

I applaud your interest in the best of the patient. It is always commendable when people of this world take the extra time to make someone elses life a little bit easier and a little more understood!
[quote] I am a Director of Nurses in a long-term care facility in Texas. We have a resident who has Huntington's Chorea and I need to access some inserv ice material about the behaviors that the Nurses and the C... [/quote]

[Guest]

I applaud your interest in the best of the patient. It is always commendable when people of this world take the extra time to make someone elses life a little bit easier and a little more understood!
[quote] I am a Director of Nurses in a long-term care facility in Texas. We have a resident who has Huntington's Chorea and I need to access some inserv ice material about the behaviors that the Nurses and the C... [/quote]

[disheartened]

My Mother was a patient at a long term nursing home in Colorado. My mom has been diagnoised for five years; it has progressed to severe dementia and pychosis. Your question was their exact problem. They didn't know how to deal with her correctly and she was kicked out. I think the absolute best thing is to get the patient on the right "cocktail" of medicines. My Mother was very angry, violent, and confused and did not take her medicines and therefore her situation worsened. Right now they have her on some meds called respidol, ambilify, and used to have her on anti-depression meds. Once we found the right combination, she was a lot more cooperative, and less apt for violence. I think the thing that they lacked was understanding. HD is a very scarey disease. My mother used to hear people threatening to kill her and us, she was scared, frustrated because her perception was reality and nurses kept telling her they didn't exist or she was ill. That made things a lot worse; because no one believed her. I used to listen to her and offer constructive options to deal with these illusions. She did get very depressed and the love and support of her daughters pulled her out alot of the time. As the disease progresses you will notice increased aggrevation, violent trembles or "choeratic movements". Food needs to be cut into SMALL pieces as their swallowing ability will detrioate. Keeping them as active as possible without forcing activities on them. The nursing home she was in tried to make her "color" or play bingo; she hated this. She realizes she's not 5 years old anymore. Instead talk about their lives and stories because that's all they have left. I could write a novel on how to deal with this disease. I face it everyday. I hope something in this helps your patient and your staff. Please just know they are frightened and don't understand what's happening to them. My mom till this day will swear up and down that she doesn't have HD and she's fine. It's too much to comprehend and I don't push the issue.
I am by NO means an expert or Dr. Each case is different and different stages call for different actions and different meds; but I like to think sharing knowledge might someday help someone.