Cutting Brussels sprouts: Collaboration involving persons with dementia

Abstract

How people with dementia collaborate with other people is an area in need of more research and conceptualizations. Collaboration introduces a number of new possibilities and demands concerning cognitive and linguistic abilities and it is suggested that a theoretical framework that emphasize that cognitive resources are not exclusively individual, but are part of cognitive and communicative context. In this article focus is on joint activities and their collaborative organization is analyzed using an example involving persons with dementia working together with staff preparing a meal. The analysis shows that persons with dementia are able to collaborate in fairly advanced activities if they are supported in such a way that they can make use of the cognitive and linguistic resources of others, in particular cognitive

Crafting citizen(ship) for people with dementia: How policy narratives at national level in Sweden informed politics of time from 1975 to 2013

“…Abilities are affected usually resulting in failing memory, difficulties in planning and carrying out everyday tasks and orientating oneself in time and space as well as problems with language and communication (cf. Örulv 2010;Hydén 2014). There are various diseases behind dementia: Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, stroke, Parkinson's and Lewy-Body dementia (Gaunt et al 1993).…”

Ethnoculturally-profiled care: Dementia caregiving targeted towards Middle Eastern immigrants living in Sweden.

“…Hence, research regarding persons with dementia has often focused upon individuals and their cognitive (declining) abilities. This, of course, is beneficial in terms of understanding dementia as a progressive brain disease, but not quite as helpful if we would like to try to understand how persons with dementia live and cope with their illness (Hydén 2014;Hydén and Antelius fortcoming). In other words, it tells us almost nothing about people's lived experience of the disease (Strandroos and Antelius, forthcoming;Toombs 1995Toombs , 2001).…”

“…Significant in this approach is that the disease cannot solely be understood as trapped inside the brain of the person with dementia. Instead, it understands the transformations and changes brought about by the disease as collaborative (Hydén 2014;Hydén, Lindemann and Brockmeier 2014;Strandroos and Antelius, forthcoming) - where the persons with dementia always change with their disease in relation to other people. i with other people, have been strongly stressed.…”

Facing dementia as a we: Investigating couples’ challenges and communicative strategies for managing dementia

“…Hydén, 2011;Wood, Bruner & Ross, 1976). People with dementia can participate in rather advanced joint activities by making use of the cognitive and linguistic resources of a coparticipant, particularly in terms of planning and carrying out an activity such as cooking (Hydén, 2014;Majlesi & Ekström, 2016).…”