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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Living with dementia from the perspective of older people
— is it a positive story? | | Author(s) | Els Steeman, Jan Godderis, Mieke Grypdonck |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 11, no 2, March 2007 |
| Pages | pp 119-130 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Early ; Family care ; Attitude ; Qualitative Studies ; Belgium. |
| Annotation | Even at an early stage, dementia may pose problems and challenge one's quality of life. Having accurate knowledge of what one experiences when living with dementia is important for developing proactive care for people with dementia and their families. This Grounded Theory study explores what it means for older people to live with early-stage dementia. 20 Belgians with probable mild dementia and their family members were interviewed. Living with dementia was often presented as a positive narrative, one that told of only minor problems and which stressed abilities and contentment with life. Being valued, rather than losing one's cognition or identity was central in their experience. More in-depth analyses of participants' narratives revealed, however, that they were constantly balancing their feelings of value and worthlessness, struggling to remain someone of value. This struggle was prompted by threats posed by dementia and by a person's interactions with others. Superficially, a positive narrative may be understood as a lack of awareness of as denial due to cognitive loss. The findings suggest, though, that we should look beyond this superficial view and seek to understand the narrative as an expression of one's attempts to counterbalance devaluation. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-070514210 A |
| Classmark | EA: 4J: P6:SJ: DP: 3DP: 76E |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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