The paper aims to examine how the wives of men with dementia experience their lives and how they perceive support from the society. The paper also aims to highlight the family care consultants´ work and views on support for families of people with dementia. Three spouses of people with dementia and three family care consultants were interviewed and the results were analyzed using Antonovsky's (1991) three theoretical concepts; comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness that comes from his theory Sense of coherence. The results show that the three wives whose men suffered from dementia spend most of their time, effort and energy on their husbands. They do not have time to think about their own needs and what support they feel they could use for themselves. They do not think about themselves as caregivers, they are spouses. Family care consultants are well aware of the importance of meeting and see the relatives in their lives, and denounces the importance of a support designed individually. Family care consultants understand that the most important and the best support society can provide a family care giver is that their close ones are well taken care of and given good care.

Stadsdelsmammor 2.0 i Helsingborg anordnar utbildning för invandrarkvinnor. Utbild­ningen leder till att kvinnorna får uppdrag som stadsdelsmammor i ett bostadsområde. Syftet är att dessa stadsdelsmammor ska dela med sig av sina kunskaper och öka delaktigheten bland de boende i området. Denna studies syfte var att utforska främ­jandet av deltagarnas hälsa genom utbildningen samt hur stadsdelsmammorna bygger upp och upprätthåller sociala nätverk i bostadsområdet. Studien baseras utifrån ett salutogent synsätt och använder ”Känsla av sammanhang” (KASAM) som modell för analys tillsammans med det transformativa och livslånga lärandet. Studiens empiri bygger på enskilda intervjuer av semistrukturerad karaktär baserat på KASAM. Resultatet från de 11 intervjuerna analyserades utifrån en kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Utifrån ett hälsopedagogiskt perspektiv synliggjordes att diplomering till stadsdels­mamma ger ökad legitimitet och stärker stadsdelsmammornas position i samhället och roll som vägvisare. Utbildningen möjliggör för de kvinnor som önskar att få vara en vägledare. Dessutom leder lärandet till transformativ och personlig utveckling. Dels genom nya kunskaper och erfarenheter, men också genom möjligheten till socialt stöd via den process som utbildningen startar. Stadsdelsmammorna upplever också positiva känslor av utbildningen samt efterföljande uppdrag. De sociala nätverken i bostads­området kan skapas och bestå genom stadsdelsmammans närvaro, spridande av infor­mation samt allmänhetens kännedom om stadsdelsmamman. De sociala nätverken som stadsdelsmamman möjliggör existerar utifrån olika nivåer; sociala band, sociala broar och sociala länkar. Både stadsdelsmammorna och boende i bostadsområdena har fått ökad begriplighet, hanterbarhet och meningsfullhet, vilket därmed främjar känsla av sammanhang. / Stadsdelsmammor 2.0 in Helsingborg provides education for immigrant women. The education leads to women being assigned as neighbourhood mothers in a residential area. The purpose of this study was to explore the promotion of participants’ health through education and how the neighbourhood mothers build and maintain social networks. The study is based on a salutogenic approach and uses ”Sense of Coherence” (SOC) as a model for analysis together with transformative and lifelong learning. The study’s empirical data is based on individual interviews of a semi-structured nature based on SOC. The results of the 11 interviews were analyzed on the basis of a qualitative content analysis. From a health educational perspective, it was made clear that diplomacy for neighbourhood mothers gives increased legitimacy and strengthens the neighbourhood mothers’ position in society and role as a guide to life. The education makes it possible for the women who want to be a guide to life for others. In addition, education leads to transformative and personal development. Partly through new knowledge and experience, partly through access to the social support given by the educational network. The neighbourhood mothers also experience positive feelings about the education as well as subsequent assignments. The social networks in the residential area can be created and consist through the presence of the neighbourhood mother, dissemi­nation of information and the public’s knowledge of the neighbourhood mother. The social networks exist on different levels; social bonds, social bridges and social links.