IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v184y2017icp116-123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Resisting decay: On disposal, valuation, and care in a dementia nursing home in Denmark

Author

Listed:
  • Gjødsbøl, Iben M.
  • Koch, Lene
  • Svendsen, Mette N.

Abstract

This paper approaches institutionalized dementia care as a site of societal disposal, valuation, and care for human life. Drawing upon six weeks of ethnographic fieldwork and ten qualitative interviews carried out in a Danish dementia nursing home in 2014, we analyze how nursing home staff, through everyday care, uphold the value of life for residents in severe mental and physical decline. We argue that life's worth is established when residents gain qualities of personhood and agency through substitution processes carried out by staff. Yet the persistent absence of conventional personhood and autonomous agency in residents (i.e. capacities for memory, consciousness, language, and mobility) evokes experiences of ambiguity in staff and relatives of residents. We close the article with a discussion of this ambiguity and the significance of the nursing home as care institution in the welfare state. Dementia care, we propose, is not only about preserving the lives of people with dementia. At stake in the daily care practices around severely disabled residents in the nursing home is the very continuance of the main principles of the welfare society.

Suggested Citation

  • Gjødsbøl, Iben M. & Koch, Lene & Svendsen, Mette N., 2017. "Resisting decay: On disposal, valuation, and care in a dementia nursing home in Denmark," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 116-123.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:184:y:2017:i:c:p:116-123
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953617303167
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.05.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaufman, Sharon R., 2003. "Hidden places, uncommon persons," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(11), pages 2249-2261, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hillman, A. & Jones, I.R & Quinn, C. & Pentecost, C. & Stapley, S. & Charlwood, C. & Clare, L., 2023. "The precariousness of living with, and caring for people with, dementia: Insights from the IDEAL programme," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 331(C).
    2. Sofia Vikström & Karin Johansson, 2019. "Professional pride: A qualitative descriptive study of nursing home staff’s experiences of how a quality development project influenced their work," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(15-16), pages 2760-2768, August.
    3. Munkejord, Mai Camilla & Tingvold, Laila, 2019. "Staff perceptions of competence in a multicultural nursing home in Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 230-237.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nettleton, Sarah & Kitzinger, Jenny & Kitzinger, Celia, 2014. "A diagnostic illusory? The case of distinguishing between “vegetative” and “minimally conscious” states," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 134-141.
    2. Iedema, Rick & Sorensen, Roslyn & Braithwaite, Jeffrey & Flabouris, Arthas & Turnbull, Liz, 2005. "The teleo-affective limits of end-of-life care in the intensive care unit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 845-857, February.
    3. Stonington, Scott D., 2012. "On ethical locations: The good death in Thailand, where ethics sit in places," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(5), pages 836-844.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:184:y:2017:i:c:p:116-123. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.