Dementia as Neither Hidden nor Defining : Identity, Group Belonging, and Wellbeing in Day-Care Centres
Nyström, Linnea ; Foucard, Ellen ; Harnett, Tove LU
and Jönson, Håkan
(2025)
In Dementia
- Abstract
In this study we investigate day-care centres as a form of community-based support designed to facilitate ageing in place for individuals with dementia, with the goal of delaying or preventing their transition to institutional care. Day-care centres provide structured activities designed to alleviate loneliness and isolation, affirm personal identity, and offer respite for family caregivers. In Sweden – the context of this research – some 16,000 older adults with dementia attend day-care centres. Our aim is to explore how individuals with dementia experience day-care centres, and to examine the types of identities that are made possible and enacted within this setting. The empirical material consists of 14 qualitative interviews... (More)
In this study we investigate day-care centres as a form of community-based support designed to facilitate ageing in place for individuals with dementia, with the goal of delaying or preventing their transition to institutional care. Day-care centres provide structured activities designed to alleviate loneliness and isolation, affirm personal identity, and offer respite for family caregivers. In Sweden – the context of this research – some 16,000 older adults with dementia attend day-care centres. Our aim is to explore how individuals with dementia experience day-care centres, and to examine the types of identities that are made possible and enacted within this setting. The empirical material consists of 14 qualitative interviews conducted across six day-care centres located in two Swedish cities. The participants were 8 women and 6 men, aged between 60 and 90. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings showed that participants viewed the day-care centres as accepting, non-demanding environments, in contrast to the more problematic identities they encountered in ordinary life. While participants acknowledged dementia as a shared condition and expressed their appreciation that they were part of a community where others also experienced memory difficulties, there was little effort to cultivate a collective identity centred on dementia. Participants seldom shared personal information with one another and generally deferred to staff to decide about group activities. Although their limited self-disclosure might suggest a lack of opportunity for deeper engagement, an alternative interpretation is that the group setting enabled participants to maintain an identity as competent social actors – individuals capable of navigating and adapting to the social expectations of the group. We thus highlight the nuanced ways in which day-care centres can support personhood and social participation among people living with dementia.
(Less)
- author
- Nyström, Linnea
; Foucard, Ellen
; Harnett, Tove
LU
and Jönson, Håkan
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-12-19
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- day-care centres, dementia, identity, social participation, stigma
- in
- Dementia
- pages
- 16 pages
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:41420348
- scopus:105025214434
- ISSN
- 1471-3012
- DOI
- 10.1177/14713012251408714
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
- id
- 13850fba-42cc-4aae-a46b-48f931903926
- date added to LUP
- 2026-02-26 13:40:02
- date last changed
- 2026-02-27 03:00:09
@article{13850fba-42cc-4aae-a46b-48f931903926,
abstract = {{<p>In this study we investigate day-care centres as a form of community-based support designed to facilitate ageing in place for individuals with dementia, with the goal of delaying or preventing their transition to institutional care. Day-care centres provide structured activities designed to alleviate loneliness and isolation, affirm personal identity, and offer respite for family caregivers. In Sweden – the context of this research – some 16,000 older adults with dementia attend day-care centres. Our aim is to explore how individuals with dementia experience day-care centres, and to examine the types of identities that are made possible and enacted within this setting. The empirical material consists of 14 qualitative interviews conducted across six day-care centres located in two Swedish cities. The participants were 8 women and 6 men, aged between 60 and 90. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings showed that participants viewed the day-care centres as accepting, non-demanding environments, in contrast to the more problematic identities they encountered in ordinary life. While participants acknowledged dementia as a shared condition and expressed their appreciation that they were part of a community where others also experienced memory difficulties, there was little effort to cultivate a collective identity centred on dementia. Participants seldom shared personal information with one another and generally deferred to staff to decide about group activities. Although their limited self-disclosure might suggest a lack of opportunity for deeper engagement, an alternative interpretation is that the group setting enabled participants to maintain an identity as competent social actors – individuals capable of navigating and adapting to the social expectations of the group. We thus highlight the nuanced ways in which day-care centres can support personhood and social participation among people living with dementia.</p>}},
author = {{Nyström, Linnea and Foucard, Ellen and Harnett, Tove and Jönson, Håkan}},
issn = {{1471-3012}},
keywords = {{day-care centres; dementia; identity; social participation; stigma}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{Dementia}},
title = {{Dementia as Neither Hidden nor Defining : Identity, Group Belonging, and Wellbeing in Day-Care Centres}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14713012251408714}},
doi = {{10.1177/14713012251408714}},
year = {{2025}},
}