Stories of (im)mobility: people with dementia on an acute medical unit

Abstract

Through a lens of mobility, this thesis explores the narratives that people with dementia shared when they were inpatients on an acute medical unit. It is well documented that care for people with dementia when they become patients in an acute hospital is not good enough, with people losing mobility and independence skills. Despite this, there is a virtual absence of the voices of people with dementia in acute hospital research. When people have been included they have been positioned within the research as recipients of care, rather than people in their own right. This narrative enquiry is underpinned by the model of social citizenship that recognises people with dementia as citizens with voices. The study did not rely on researcher led questioning to elicit narratives, instead focusing on spontaneously produced conversations that were either video or audio recorded. Several narratives were also recorded in field notes. This enabled each participant to share what was important to them in that moment of time. The study findings were both empirical and methodological and showed that people with dementia have narratives to share, but these narratives do not fit the bio-medically constructed model that is generally expected from patients. Utilising a mobilities lens enabled the narratives to be understood as containing layers of communication. The first layer is the words; the second layer is gestures and movements that support the words; and the third layer is micro movements. These movements do not only support the words but in some cases tell a different story altogether. Attention to the layers of communication reveal personhood as a mobile process that requires work from both the teller and the listener to maintain. The micro movements are shown to be the physical manifestations of embodied language. I argue that viewing personhood through a mobilities lens is important to the advancement of dementia and citizenship practices.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Jacqueline Bridges: orcid.org/0000-0001-6776-736X

Catalogue record

Export record