Abstract
• Summary:This article explores the ways in which dementia can be
constructed and maintained by the actions, and received ideas
concerning dementia, of social care staff practising in a local authority
day care setting in the UK.The article is set within the context of ‘daily
practice’, the things that we do forming the basis of how things may be
(re)defined.
• Findings:The study suggests that the physical environment of the day
care setting, the routines and activities provided and the practices of care
staff indicate three particular ways in which dementia was constructed.
These comprised ‘holding and homogenizing’, ‘demarcating and
distancing’ and ‘caring and controlling’. Each depended on individual
approach, training and experience and was influenced by ‘received’
traditional approaches.
• Applications:This is important to our understanding of dementia care as
we seek to recognize diverse experiences and to consider pluralistic
approaches to best practice in dementia care.The study indicates the
need for training at a deep and reflective level in which the new culture
of person-centred dementia care becomes part of daily practice rather
than a distant ideal
