Life Writing and Dementia Care: A Project to Assist those ‘with Dementia’ to Tell their Stories

ABSTRACT

This essay describes the first phase of a project in which life writing is used as a form of person-centred care for people who have, or appear to have, dementia. Section one of the essay considers the relationship between the academic field of life writing and the uses of life narrative in dementia care. Examples of published dementia life writing are cited; topics discussed include conventional cultural understandings of dementia; the distinction between illness and disease; dementia as a form of biographical interruption; depression and dementia; and the evolving part that narrative therapy of various kinds may play in an individual's dementia journey. Section two compares aspects of political critique in academic life writing studies and in theories of dementia care. With particular reference to the work of Kitwood we argue for a model of person-centred dementia care which includes critique of dehumanising aspects of the ‘medical model’, of insufficiently relational understandings of selfhood, and of negative ideological constructions of the condition. Section three outlines the conduct and preliminary outcomes of life writing workshops for individuals who appear to have dementia, run under the auspices of Baptcare. This section includes samples of participant writing, issues encountered, and discussions of plans for phase two of the project.

KEYWORDS:

• Dementia care
• life writing
• personhood
• disease and illness
• memory and identity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For a follow-up clinical-linguistic analysis that attempts to correlate linguistic decline in Iris Murdoch's later work with her neurological case history to which John Bayley gave them access, see Maloney and Hodges.

2. One of several very helpful practical guides is Robyn Dynes, Writing Life Histories: A guide for use in caring environments.