Exploring the significance of clothing to people with dementia using sensory ethnography

The World Health Organisation has identified the challenge of caring for those with dementia to be made a public health priority. Increasingly, literature from dementia care advocates creative approaches to aid those with dementia to live well. Greater importance is being placed on the significance of the physical and social aspects of dementia care environments. Whilst material and textile objects are used within the care of people with dementia, limited research has explored clothing within dementia care settings. Therefore, the research aims were to investigate the relationship between people with dementia and their clothing, by exploring the embodied and sensorial experience of clothing during wear to examine the potential of clothing in the care of people with dementia. The research design was shaped by my background in fashion textile design and psychology, and employed a sensory ethnographic (SE) approach. SE draws on traditional ethnographic methods, such as observation and interviews, whilst employing less conventional techniques which involve, for example, designing an activity for (or with) participants. This project employed the use of sensory, creative and embodied research methods, designed to support people with dementia to participate as fully as possible in the research. Three iterative, interlinked cycles of study were carried out. CYCLE 1 consisted of multisensory research encounters, working with people with dementia and care home staff to explore clothing during wear. CYCLE 2 involved working with creative practitioners to translate thematic findings from the first cycle of study into a series of materials, objects and images. CYCLE 3 repurposed object handling sessions (typically used as a psychosocial intervention within dementia care) as a creative, sensory research method, working with people with dementia to explore their responses to the specific materials, objects and images. The analytic process used varied according to each cycle of study, resulting in the use of reflexive thematic analysis (CYCLE 1), thematic analysis (CYCLE 2) and audio-visual analysis (CYCLE 3). Findings demonstrate that clothing is important to people with dementia at a number of levels. Clothing supports selfhood, enhances spatial and temporal orientation, improves feelings of comfort, belongingness, security and privacy. The aesthetic and sensorial properties of clothing (and textiles) are important to people with dementia. For example, wearing the ‘right’ items of clothing can be empowering, whilst wearing the ‘wrong’ items of clothing can act as a barrier. Attending to such preferences can support relational approaches to care and the design and use of clothing and textiles within care homes. This research identifies the expressive capacity that clothing and textiles afford people with dementia, and demonstrates how this can inform relational approaches to care and activities provision within care homes. Not only do findings contribute multifaceted knowledge regarding the importance of clothing to people with dementia, they also demonstrate the significance of using novel sensory, creative embodied research methods when working with people with dementia

Creative forms: booklets by the hospital senses collective.

This article details the creation of a series of booklets designed to explore sensory encounters with hospitals and healthcare environments. The booklets were devised as a series of prompts or provocations, created to attend to and examine embodied, sensory encounters with health/care settings rather than to present research findings. Bringing together an expansive range of backgrounds and skill sets the booklets were created to sit within and beyond language through their design, form and content. Within this article we share the ways in which the works are deliberately unfinished and exploratory as this necessitates that those interacting with them create their own meanings and explore how they think and feel about health/care environments. The form and design promote a certain attentiveness and embodied engagement. For example, users must engage with the works carefully, gently turning and unfurling the fragile pages. This is further illustrated through qualitative insights collected from users of the booklets. Throughout this paper we argue for multiplicity in the ways in which we explore and present sensory-focused research. Our attention to multiplicity is supported not only through the design, form and content of the physical booklets but through the creative audio description, text and images created to complement and support these works. These are available online to ensure that our provocations are widely accessible. Within this paper we critique how a reliance on narrative form can limit the ways in which we engage with spatial, sensory and emotional concepts. Such concepts are by their very nature challenging to articulate and arguably require more-than-text-based approaches. We propose that embracing creative, exploratory and seemingly risky routes to examining and presenting such concepts is critical in expanding research. [Abstract copyright: © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.

Using creative, sensory and embodied research methods when working with people with dementia: A method story

Background People with dementia are often excluded from research due to ethical concerns and a reliance upon conventional research methods which focus on recall and verbal expression. Methods Creative, sensory and embodied research methods typically involve techniques that conceptually bring individuals “into” the research, thus affording an expressive capacity that traditional methods do not. This paper details a “method story”, presenting three interlinked cycles of study used to explore the significance of clothing to people with dementia living in a care home. The studies drew upon arts-based and design led practices. This paper details the methods used and the opportunities that they presented when exploring the lived experience of dementia. Results and Conclusions Creative, sensory and embodied approaches enabled people with dementia to engage with research, supporting imaginative, spontaneous and flexible participation. This supports the use of novel methods when undertaking research with people who have dementia

Aesthetics and dementia: exploring the role of everyday aesthetics in dementia care settings

This paper explores how everyday aesthetics shape and are shaped within dementia care settings. The authors draw upon research that explored the significance of clothing and textiles in care home settings, to identify the varied and complex aesthetic experiences of people with dementia. The study was carried out using a series of creative, sensory and embodied research methods working with people with dementia and care home staff. Findings demonstrate that aesthetics are important in care homes at a number of levels. People with dementia discussed personal aesthetic preferences and demonstrated such preferences through embodied practices. Attending to aesthetics facilitated moments of togetherness between people with dementia and care home staff, creating person-centred encounters outside task-orientated conversations. This paper supports the importance of everyday aesthetics within dementia care settings and demonstrates that greater attention should be paid to this, to reconsider and enhance not only the look and feel of care homes and everyday items, including clothing, but also dementia care practice more broadly

‘It’s like... it’s me’: Exploring the lived experience of clothing attachment during wear

Clothing and its intimate proximity to the body and self have been widely explored, and yet there is little psychological research that explores the experience of wearing items of clothing imbued with personal meanings, memories and emotions. This novel study explores the experience of actively worn items of attachment clothing from a psychological perspective. Method: due to a dearth of literature within this area, a qualitative methodology was employed. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used as the focus was to explore details of participants’ experience. A homogenous sample of five participants was used. Participants were asked to wear to the interview a garment that they felt emotionally attached to and was still in use. Semi-structured interviews were used, allowing for flexibility, thus ensuring the elicitation of rich data. Results: findings demonstrated that clothing attachment is a multifaceted and rich phenomenon. The garments were appropriated and imbued with a symbolic resonance that participants accessed through wearing the attachment garment. Conclusion: results link to and extend previous literature on possession attachment and provide nuanced findings that could impact areas within both fashion literature and psychology literature