Capturing the Experiences of People Living with Dementia

Abstract

Introduction A deeper understanding of how it is to live with dementia can be a good starting-point for caring and the organization of the care. Objectives Understanding the lived experience of dementia from a lifeworld-theoretical framework, which has been put to practice from a hermeneutical perspective. The research question was: What is the lived experience of dementia for a couple where one of them is diagnosed with dementia? Methods Substantially it is caring science that has directed the research, and epistemological it is a lifeworld theoretical perspective that has directed the research towards the informant’s lifeworld. Interviews and observations have been used to collect data. The informants that have participated in the study have been 8 Portuguese couples with one partner suffering from dementia. Results The couple’s existence is narrowed and controlled by the impact of the dementia disease and the existence is characterized of imbalance in responsibility and a sense of futility, hopelessness and homelessness. Discussion By taking stand in the theory of intentionality in the care of the person with dementia, caregivers can help him or her to strain the intentional threads and gives the person a possibility to be rooted the world.