Ageing in place and technologies of place: the lived experience of people with dementia in changing social, physical and technological environments

Abstract

This paper explores the varied meanings and lived experiences of older people with dementia, in relation to everyday technologies in public spaces outside the home, through re-analysis of qualitative data generated from research that focused on the use of technology in supporting people with dementia to carry on with their everyday outside activities. The data have been re-analysed to critically examine how people with memory loss manage being outside in both familiar and unfamiliar public environments. In doing so the authors explore how technologies mediate between the physical and social environment in which people with dementia live. This paper highlights the importance of a neglected space within dementia research, namely the outside public environment. Although the outside environment and activities that take place in that space, for some, are curtailed, for others the physical and social security of familiar environments enables them to carry on with everyday activities in this public realm. Outside space can be both therapeutic and frightening and this paper demonstrates that people with dementia can sometimes feel out of place in public space. It however also shows the variety of ways people with dementia use everyday technologies to manage 'feeling out of place'.

Neighbourhoods and dementia in the health and social care context: a realist review of the literature and implications for UK policy development

“…Brittain et al 53 report two studies that examined how familiar and unfamiliar environments enable and disable those with memory loss, with a particular focus on how people with dementia engage with outdoor spaces and what the authors describe as 'technologies of place' (p. 283), i.e. the use of the physical landscape and other signage to ground orientation.…”

“…The findings reinforce Duggan and colleagues' 56 conclusion that outside spaces can be anxiety-provoking (for both carers and people with dementia), leading to constraints on previous levels of outdoor activity. Both papers emphasize the fluid experience of place for people with dementia while Brittain et al 53 outline a process of becoming 'dislodged' from places once enjoyed. The research found that sometimes apparently minor alterations to 'technologies of place', such as bus routes, can inhibit a person with dementia from going out, thereby creating a sense of feeling 'out of place'.…”

“…Brittain et al 53 explored how everyday technologies mediate between people with dementia and their physical and social environment. These authors suggest that people with dementia will curtail their everyday practices in the outside environment due to anxiety and fear, with one person in their study describing how family worries about their safety led them to becoming more anxious about going out and about, despite that having previously been an important aspect of their identity.…”

Science, technology and the ‘grand challenge’ of ageing—Understanding the socio-material constitution of later life

“…Ageing baby boomers are different from younger users in terms of the needs that arise from ageing bodies (Twigg, 2004;Brooks, 2010;Czaja et al, 2013); they have undergone different technological experiences during their lives (Docampo Rama et al, 2001;Fozard and Wahl, 2012;Sackmann and Winkler, 2013); they are apt to reject technologies that too overtly position them as frail and old (Neven, 2010;Bailey et al, 2011;Jaeger, 2005a); and they rearticulate meaning and identity as they move into later life with new and existing technology (Gilleard and Higgs, 2011;Mollenkopf et al, 2011;Chapman, 2006). Yet they often also defy existing stereotypes of inept and vulnerable technology users that are set apart primarily by the problems they have in engaging with science and technology as passive recipients (Joyce and Loe, 2010;Brittain et al, 2010;Östlund and Linden, 2011;Loe, 2011). As technology users, current generations of older persons are characterized by a simultaneous need to create new patterns of meaning and sense of self for retirement and later life on the one hand, and to cope with emerging illness and frailty on the other (Peine and Neven, 2011;.…”

The making of ageing-in-place

“…'Voor Elkaar in Parkstad' , the social initiative that we studied, is based on the belief that the neighbourhood can be reconstructed as a mediator of ageingin-place, which is defined as an 'ageing technology' within Science and Technology Studies (STS; cf. Joyce and Mamo (2006) and Neven (2010) on ageing technologies, Brittain, Corner, Robinson and Bond (2010) on place as an ageing technology). To understand the meanings of this policy in practice, we studied different perspectives on the notions of ageing and place through a qualitative research design.…”