Personhood: Including the Chinese Person with Dementia in Research, Policy, and Practice

Abstract

Literature indicates that dementia caring is difficult and challenging. This literature is scarce for ethnic minorities and lacking most acutely, despite its huge diasporic population, for the Chinese group. Where available, the focus is mostly on the Chinese carer, with the regular absence of the person with dementia and the interactions of the care-partners. From an interpretive phenomenological perspective, this in-depth case study of four Chinese immigrant families takes Kitwood's (1997) personhood approach to include the Chinese person with dementia. Findings show how this inclusion is possible and important for better understanding and effecting dementia care in research, policy, and practice.

Perspective-Taking Interventions for Intergenerational Caregivers of Alzheimer’s Diseases: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…The use of basic technology like the phone helps to ensure information and support to be accessible for AD caregivers (Whitlatch & Orsulic-Jeras, 2018). Broadening from individual perspective to family communications may have special relevance to Chinese communities around the world as adult children are expected to take care of their parents (Chan & O’Conor, 2014; Wong et al, 2015). With the rapid rise in the number of people living with dementia around the world, the present findings can also be particularly relevant to countries where community or public services are just developing and the demand for family caregiving is high due to collectivistic concerns (Li & Au, 2019).…”

Threats to personhood from within the family? A study of family caregivers of people with dementia in the Chinese context

“…However, available dementia personhood-related research has predominantly focused on dementia care in general situations, with few studies exploring particularly stressful moments such as care practice and decision disagreement with people with dementia (e.g., Gallagher-Thompson et al, 1997). Moreover, most existing studies have focused on the West and overlooked the enormous population of people with dementia in East Asia who share different cultures and beliefs (Chan & O’Connor, 2014).…”

“…Second, available dementia personhood-related literature has predominantly focused on Western contexts and overlooked the enormous population of people with dementia in East Asia (Chan & O'Connor, 2014). China accounts for around one-quarter of the global dementia population (Jia et al, 2020).…”