Person-centered care, dementia and graphic medicine

Abstract

Dementia is currently promoted as an ‘epidemic.’ Such a figuration not only impacts the afflicted person but also affects caregiving practices. While the medical model solely delves into the histopathological study of dementia, recent research observes that person-centered care practices provide new ways of paying attention to the dementia-afflicted individuals. Graphic medicine is one such site which intervenes and rewrites the dominant narratives of dementia which treat dementia in terms of loss and care burden. Taking these cues, through a close reading of Valérie Villieu and Raphaël Sarfati’s graphic narrative Little Josephine: Memory in Pieces (2020), the present article attempts to investigate cultural alternatives to the demonising figurations of dementia and dementia-related care practices. In so doing, the article not only establishes the increasing role of graphic medicine as a revisionary tool/as a movement but also, through close reading Little Josephine: Memory in Pieces (2020), humanises and reverses dementia care as a ‘burden’.

Keywords:

• Personhood
• person-centered care
• dementia
• graphic medicine
• rementia

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 It should be noted that throughout the paper dementia is predominantly used but Alzheimer’s disease is referred to where it is relevant.

2 While dementia is a syndrome with no definitive diagnosis, it is widely used as an umbrella term for a decline in cognitive ability such as memory, reasoning or other thinking skills. Alzheimer’s, on the other hand, is a progressive  brain disease that slowly causes impairment in the individual’s cognitive function.

3 Social worker, Dorothy A. Miller (1981) coined the term 'sandwich generation’ to describe adult children caring for an ageing parent and children under age 18.