Dementia, disability rights and disablism: understanding the social position of people living with dementia

Abstract

This article considers the recent history and consequences of positioning people living with dementia in the realms of disability, disablism and disability rights. The geo-political focus is the United Kingdom and neighbouring resource-rich nations in the Global North. The first section examines the growing trend of identifying ‘dementia’ with ‘disability’, a trend fuelled by the expansion of dementia-related activism and research. The second section focuses on how researchers who have published in Disability & Society and other journals have applied the social model of disability to individuals living with dementia. The third section discusses three conceptual challenges that lie ahead for those who choose to research and theorise the dementia/disability connection. These challenges concern: theorising dementia as disability; understanding intersectionality in dementia contexts; and understanding ‘abuse’ in dementia contexts.

Keywords:

• Disability
• dementia
• disability rights
• disability studies theory

Notes

1. In brief terms, dementia is an umbrella term commonly used in biomedicine and wider society to describe a range of chronic conditions that cause damage to the brain. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common condition, but others of particular note are vascular dementia, Lewy body dementia and fronto-temporal dementia (WHO 2012). Associated losses in comprehension typically encompass attributes that are heavily socially stigmatised, such as: loss of memory; language skill confusion and deterioration; diminishing capacity to carry out everyday tasks; or experiencing hallucinations. The manifestation of these cognitive impairments is always individualised and variable, and elides predictive certainty – but overall, individuals move progressively through, early, middle and late/advanced stages of dementia, and experience a mix of changes in their cognitive, psychological and physical capacities (WHO 2012).