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Care and encounter-free periods

Pluralistic explorations of the experience of people with dementia

Those with dementia spend most of the day without care, encounter, and usually without activity. Although this has been documented in numerous studies, there has been no scientific discussion of how persons with dementia experience these periods of time.

Such knowledge would be highly relevant for health professionals and family members in developing adequate strategies to deal with these situations. Based on the fundamental Goffmanian question "What is actually going on here?", the aim of the study is to reconstruct the care and encounter-free time periods of patients with dementia from the perspective of the persons themselves, and from the perspective of the formal or informal caregivers in institutional and home-based, long-term care settings in Switzerland and Germany, in order to present a descriptive account of the modes of action, and to develop and test a typification of lifeworld understandings of time.

  • No investigation of dementia patients' experiences Although dementia sufferers generally spend most of the day without care, encounter and activity, it is unknown how they experience these periods of time.
  • Reconstruction of care and encounter-free periods Care and encounter-free periods are being reconstructed in a descriptive account from the point of view of those with dementia, and that of the formal or informal caregivers.
  • Development of supportive strategies A typification of lifeworld understandings of time will allow health professionals and family members to develop adequate strategies to deal with these situations.

Project partners

  • Furtwangen University, Care & Technology Lab
  • Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Institute of Applied Nursing Science & Institut für Altersforschung
  • Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Health Sciences Department
  • Psychology Geneva Aging Research Center (CIGEV) Université de Genève Faculté de psychologie et des sciences de l’éducation

Funding

The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).

  • FreiZeit (I63)
  • FreiZeit (I64)