Memory Loss Assessment
Issue this memory loss assessment example to gauge a person’s cognitive decline and memory loss!
What is a Memory Loss Assessment?
are useful tools that often come in the form of questionnaires that revolve around a person’s memory in terms of how strong it is and what particular aspects of their life they seem to forget from time to time. Some of these come in the form of self-assessments, while some are for informants who talk about their loved ones experiencing memory loss.
These assessments are there to help elucidate a person’s cognitive decline as well as to serve as guides when formulating treatment/care plans for patients going through memory loss and degradation.
In the case of this Cognitive Decline and Memory Loss Assessment, authored by A.F. Jorm, this one is for informants!
Printable Memory Loss Test
Download this Memory Loss Test and determine the symptoms and severity of your client’s cognitive impairments and memory loss.
How to use this memory loss assessment:
This particular assessment is straightforward and easy to use! It’s designed to gauge an elderly person’s memory and cognitive decline but can also be used to assess a younger person in the event they experience cognitive decline at an earlier stage.
Issue the assessment sheet to the informant.
On the part of the neurologist or nurse, all they need to do is to issue this to the person reporting someone’s cognitive decline and memory loss.
The informant will answer questions.
Once the informant receives that assessment form, they simply need to rate the aspects of a person’s cognition and memory in the following areas:
- Remembering things about family and friends (e.g. occupations, birthdays, addresses)
- Remembering things that have happened recently
- Recalling conversations a few days later
- Remembering their address and telephone number
- Remembering what day and month it is
- Remembering where things are usually kept
- Remembering where to find things that have been put in a different place from usual
- Knowing how to work familiar machines around the house
- Learning to use a new gadget or machine around the house
- Learning new things in general
- Following a story in a book or on TV
- Making decisions on everyday matters
- Handling money for shopping
- Handling financial matters (e.g. the pension, dealing with the bank)
- Handling other everyday arithmetic problems (e.g. knowing how much food to buy, knowing how long between visits from family or friends)
- Using their intelligence to understand what’s going on and to reason things through
They can rate it by checking one of the following checkboxes per item:
- Much improved
- A bit improved
- Not much change
- A bit worse
- Much worse
One thing that neurologists/nurses should tell informants to keep in mind is that they need to think in terms of the past ten years and compare it to how things are now.
Make your plan after receiving an answered assessment.
After the informant returns a fully-answered assessment, the ratings should help you determine the kind of care or treatment plan that your patient will benefit from.
Cognitive Decline and Memory Loss Assessment Example (Sample):
Here is an example of a filled-out Cognitive Decline and Memory Loss Assessment example, to help give you insight into what these assessments look like when they have been completed.
Download this Memory Loss Test Example (Sample) here:
When would you typically use a memory loss assessment?
Issuing a memory loss assessment is often done when a person is informing you about their or someone else’s signs of cognitive decline and memory loss.
The assessment is used to better gauge the person who is experiencing said signs because how they are rated by the informant will help the neurologist determine how to create a plan that best assists their patient.
Is this a one-off thing? Not necessarily! If you happen to be the same attending neurologist for the patient years down the line, you can reissue this to see if there are any significant changes in the patient.
Who can use this printable memory loss assessment?
The following healthcare practitioners can use the Cognitive Decline and Memory Loss Assessment for their respective practices:
- Neurologists
- Nurses
- Psychiatrists
- Psychologists
- Geriatricians
The types of patients who benefit from responding to this assessment are those experiencing memory and general cognitive decline. While this may include individuals diagnosed with a memory loss disorder, including a form of Dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, it can also be helpful for patients who have experienced a traumatic head injury.
Why is this assessment useful for neurologists, nurses, and psychologists?
It helps the practitioner gauge their patient.
Cognitive decline and memory loss aren’t exactly clear cut in the beginning because they may only be affecting certain aspects of a person’s cognition and memory, or they could be affecting the entirety of their cognition and memory.
What this assessment does is list different aspects of a person’s life in which memory plays an important role, and the informant, whether it’s the patient themselves or a loved one/close friend reporting about the patient to the health practitioner, will rate it.
This should give a good picture of the state of the patient’s cognition and memory.
It helps the practitioner create a care/treatment plan for the patient.
Since this assessment asks informants to rate certain aspects of a patient’s cognition and memory, an accomplished assessment will help health practitioners with crafting a treatment plan for their patients, especially the aspects of their cognition and memory that they might want to focus on first or for the entire duration of the plan.
Commonly asked questions
Given that an informant, whether it’s the patient themself or someone close to them, rates certain aspects of a person’s cognition and memory, it is technically subjective. They are basing their responses on observations, so health practitioners should keep this in mind when making decisions guided by the information provided to them.
Before deciding on what to do for your patient, you have to gauge them first. So, issue this assessment to their informant/representative so they can rate aspects of the patient’s cognition and memory by comparing them to how they were ten years before setting up their appointment(s) with you.
Again, this isn’t a one-off type of assessment. You can reissue this to monitor the progress of your treatment plan for them.
Originally, yes. But you can use this to gauge non-elderly adults who seem to be exhibiting signs of cognitive degradation and memory loss. If early signs are detected, then starting early with treatment might help prevent the degradation of their cognition and memory.
What are the benefits of using this Cognitive Decline and Memory Loss Assessment?
The prompt for this is for the informant to look back ten years ago and think of the person they are reporting on and how different they are today in terms of their cognition and memory.
This doesn’t always have to be the case since this can still be issued if you, the practitioner, want to monitor the patient for any changes every now and then.
It’s good to have the informant work on this assessment every once in a while (depending on your treatment plan with the patient) so that you can track the progress of your plan and see if it’s working or not.
It’ll also be beneficial for other health practitioners in the event that you have to pass them on to another neurologist, psychologist, or psychiatrist.
Why use Carepatron for neurological and memory loss software?
Here at Carepatron, we care about helping healthcare practitioners improve productivity and efficiency, especially when it comes to streamlining their clinical documentation. By taking advantage of our easy-to-navigate EHR system, you’ll gain access to a wide variety of neurological and memory loss assessments such as this Cognitive Decline and Memory Loss Assessment.
Using our assessments will help assist you with gauging your patient’s cognition and if there are any signs of memory loss and degradation. These assessments should also aid in helping you develop the best possible treatment plans for your patients.
You can even store these assessments in Carepatron’s HIPAA-compliant platform and secure them by setting up who can access these documents besides you.
Not only are our neurological software and assessments intuitive, but they’re also easily accessible! Whether you’re using an office desktop, a laptop, or even just your phone, you can access your psychotherapy assessments anytime, anywhere!
.png)
Related Templates
