‘Something is dropped out of the journey of life’: perceived spaces of opportunity among people with dementia

Abstract

Dementia brings forth different kinds of challenges to manage everyday life. Comprehension of the multidimensional nature of the challenges, varying from spatiotemporal disorientation to fears or lack of services gives us tools with which living as a good life as possible with dementia can be supported. The time-geography offers a useful approach to delve into the experiences of people by focusing on what individuals try/want to do in their environment and how they try to manage with growing difficulties. The time-geographic approach acknowledges individually perceived spaces of opportunities as being assembled of several human and non-human elements. This relational approach enhances understanding how the multiple interconnections among elements of disparate dimensions of time–space transform the lives of people with dementia illustrating the possible constraints and incentives they encounter in their activities. In this article, we examine the possible challenges people with dementia experience in their lives by using the time-geographical approach. In doing so, we demonstrate topics such as social relations and spatiotemporal shrinkage affecting the well-being of the participants. Moreover, we stress the need to conceptualize indirect constraints in the time-geographic approach.