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Transforming lived places into the connected neighbourhood: a longitudinal narrative study of five couples where one partner has an early diagnosis of dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2019

Xia Li Open the ORCID record for Xia Li [Opens in a new window] ,
John Keady  and
Richard Ward
Xia Li*
Affiliation:
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Manchester, UK
John Keady
Affiliation:
Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Richard Ward
Affiliation:
University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

To support people with dementia to live at home, a key national and international policy driver is to create dementia-friendly communities which draws attention to the importance of a local neighbourhood and living well with dementia. However, there is a lack of evidence about how people with dementia define and interact with their neighbourhood. This longitudinal narrative research aimed to uncover the meaning, construction and place of neighbourhood in the lives of people with dementia and their care partners through a participatory approach. Five couples, where one partner had an early diagnosis of dementia and capacity to consent, participated in the (up to) one-year mixed qualitative method study. During this time-frame, 65 home visits were conducted, resulting in over 57 hours of interview data alongside the development of other artefacts, such as neighbourhood maps, photographs, diaries and field notes. Narrative analysis was applied within and across the data-sets. This led to the emergence of three themes to describe a connected neighbourhood. First, ‘connecting to people’ is about the couples’ connections with family members, friends and neighbours through a sense of belonging, group identification and responsibilities. Second, ‘connecting to places’ shares the couples’ emotional and biographical attachment to places. Third, ‘connecting to resources’ refers to the couples actively seeking support to live independently and to retain neighbourhood connections.

Keywords

dementianeighbourhoodnarrativelongitudinalparticipatory mapping
Type
Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , March 2021 , pp. 605 - 627
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019

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