World Delirium Awareness Day
World Delirium Awareness Day is on Wednesday 16th March. Organisations use this date to bring awareness to a common serious condition that remains relatively unknown to the general public.
What Is Delirium?
Delirium is an acute confusional state commonly associated with acute illness and is more common in older adults. It usually develops over hour or days. It is a common, serious, but potentially treatable condition.
Who Does It Affect?
Over 50% of people living with dementia will develop delirium at some point.
Delirium can be brief and transient (resolved in 24 hours), but may persist – 30% at one month, 20% at 6 months and some never recover. It can therefore have a poor prognosis and can have a mortality rate as high as 20%. Despite this delirium can be under-recognised.
How Can Delirium Be Prevented?
There are things that can be done to help prevent the development of delirium. This is why promotion to enable better and earlier recognition and prevention of delirium through education and community engagement is so important. This is the aim of events such as World Delirium Awareness Day.
World Delirium Awareness Day 2022
Zena Marney and Nicky Leopold from the Geriatric Medicine Department in Singleton Hospital will in the Dementia Hwb raising awareness of the condition. They will be on hand to answer visitors questions, there is no need to make an appointment, just drop on in.
For further reading on delirium, follow the links below. If you are concerned that someone you know currently has delirium, please contact your GP or call NHS Direct on 111 for advice. Thank you to Zena for providing the content for this article.
Dementia UK – https://www.dementiauk.org/delirium/
Alzheimer’s UK – https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/get-support/daily-living/delirium
Royal College of Psychiatrists – https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/problems-disorders/delirium