Yes / This paper uses precarity as a framework to understand the vulnerabilities experienced by those living with or caring for someone living with dementia. Drawing on qualitative interview data from the Improving the Experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life (IDEAL) programme, we attend to our participants' reflections on how they manage the condition and the wider circumstances in which this occurs. To interrogate the utility of precarity, we focus on our participants' descriptions of needs and challenges and set these alongside both the wider contexts in which they seek or offer care (formal and informal) and the sets of values attributed to different ways of living with dementia. Building on the work of Portacolone, our analysis identified four interconnected themes: uncertainty; experiences of support and services; independence and personhood; and cumulative pressures and concerns. We develop this analysis by reviewing how our themes reflect, extend, or depart from previously identified markers of precarity and consider the specific ways in which these markers shape the lives of those living with dementia. / ‘Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life: living well with dementia. The IDEAL study’ was funded jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through grant ES/L001853/2. ESRC is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). ‘Improving the experience of Dementia and Enhancing Active Life: a longitudinal perspective on living well with dementia. The IDEAL-2 study’ is funded by Alzheimer’s Society, grant number 348, AS-PR2-16-001.

Dementia, a clinical condition that affects the psychological ability of patients, is distinguished by a significant overall decline in cognitive function that results in distorted perception. Guiding nursing practice in the long-term care (LTC) setting to decrease the unnecessary use of psychotropics is critical because doing so relates to the patients' quality of life and safety. In the LTC facility that served as the practicum site for this study, there was an observed overuse of psychotropic medications in the care of patients with dementia. The practice-focused question guiding this project asked whether a nursing staff development program would decrease the use of psychotropics in dementia patients. The purpose of the project was to inform nursing staff through an educational program on alternative methods to use when dementia patients exhibit increased disturbing behaviors. The conceptual framework for the project was the knowledge-to-action model. The nursing staff development program had a positive effect on the nursing staff as evidenced by a statistically significant improvement in knowledge and attitudes about the use of psychotropics in caring for dementia patients. The use of psychotropic in the dementia patient decreased from 22.32% to 15.77%, the lowest score achieved by the organization in 5 years. The dementia patients benefited from this project and its positive social change implications for nursing practice by decreasing dementia patients use of psychotropics, minimizing their side effects to the patients and providing an overall feeling of well-being.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003. / Advisor: Dr. Michelle Bourgeois, Florida State University, College of Communication, Dept. of Communication Disorders. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 6, 2003). Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis explores the communication of a group of older people with dementia living in a residential care home and specifically, seeks to understand how living with dementia in a care home influences communication. The study draws broadly on a symbolic interactionist perspective and uses an ethnographic, inclusive, video methodology. In so doing, the study grounds the research in the experiences of the older residents with dementia and explores communication as it is interwoven with social life. The empirical data, on which this thesis is based, were gathered over the course of six months in one residential care home in Central Scotland. Analysis of these data, in conjunction with the theoretical literature informing the study, led to the development of a framework and a set of concepts to understand the communication of the older people with dementia living in residential care. This framework was used to examine the ways in which the older residents' experiences of institutionalisation, ageing, and dementia, generally, and of life in the care setting, specifically, influenced their communication. The findings revealed that the older residents made diverse meanings of their experiences in the home, and mat many of the meanings that they made were threatening to their self-identity, self-determinacy and social relationships. The residents engaged in a range of strategies to respond to the impact of these meanings and to negotiate their life in the care home. The research presented in this thesis has many implications for understanding the experiences of older people with dementia in residential care. In particular, the research highlights the need for a new social understanding of dementia, that examines the experience of dementia in relation to broad structural and cultural processes and that seeks to promote the social inclusion and citizenship of older people with dementia.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2002. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2008. / "December, 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-116). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri--Columbia, 1999. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-107). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (doctoral)--Lund University, 1995. / Added t.p. with thesis statement inserted.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1989.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1990.