Knitting with my mother: Using interpretative phenomenological analysis and video to investigate the lived experience of dyadic crafting in dementia care

Abstract

This article presents findings of a Ph.D. case study that uses interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to elicit a deep understanding of lived experience within the context of a ‘craft-encounter’ shared by an adult carer with her mother, who has dementia. Recent studies have evaluated the health and well-being benefits of participatory craft practice in community-based projects. However, a less examined site of research is the lived experience of participating in shared craft-encounters as a domiciliary based intervention for dementia care. This study elicits a nuanced understanding of lived experience of participatory textile-based craft and explores the value of working with video as an adjunct to IPA’s existing methodology as a way of attending to non-textual communication that is easily missed in the moment of occurrence. Reviewing primary-source video with participants produces additional data as a result of participants’ reflexivity and meaning-making through interpretation of video footage. The findings challenge the dominant bias that frames dementia care only in terms of losses without considering the potential gains and meanings of the dementia care experience.