Technologies of Place for those Living with Dementia by Katie Brittain

Ageing in place & technologies of place Katie Brittain

Acknowledgements
Alzheimer's Society
All participants
KITE: Louise Robinson, Patrick Olivier, Stephen Lindsay, Dan Jackson.
WANDA: Louise Robinson, Deborah Hutchings, Lynne Corner, Fiona Beyer, Heather Dickinson, Alessandra Vanoli, Tracy Finch, Julian Hughes, Clive Ballard, Carl May, John Bond.

Themes of presentation
ordinary places
everyday technologies
frightening aspects of being outside
therapeutic benefits of outside places
neglect of outside space in dementia research

concepts of risk and surveillance
dangers of older people living alone
risk management
conflict of views
If someone was keeping an eye on you it would depend who it was … you might feel alright about it, you might not.
Technology, surveillance & control

WALKING

WANDERING

Balancing rights and risks
It is a constant compromise.…what's best for the individual but what you have to do to protect yourself within the organisation.
One of the main dilemmas about caring for people with dementia is bringing up the safety aspects, yet giving them some sort of freedom; walking might be the only thing they can do independently when they have lost nearly everything else.
(Robinson et al 2007)

Ageing in Place
Push for assistive and supportive technologies
Focus within the home
Disturb the meanings and routines that encompass the experience of home
(Dyck et al 2005)
An isolated and marginalised space
(Brittain & Shaw 2007)

Technologies of place
There is no single activity that humans undertake which is not in some way technologically mediated
(Ihde 1993)

Methods
Qualitative
Recruited via Alzheimer’s Society
Focus groups
Familiar surroundings

Techno-citizens
He’ll get on his mobile “where are you?” or if he’s going to be,…you know, if he’s taking too long then I will get on mine “right, I'm such and such a place, where are you? You stay there and I’ll come and find you. (female carer)

Techno-citizens
… see, by and large, the people who are dealing with it are probably, my age group, and they are not often familiar with technology, they are not familiar with the use of a mobile phone…I mean, you give them mobile phone and ring them, would they know how to switch it on, or listen to it, really. (male carer)

Within our “caffeinated, sped-up world”, ageing people and bodies have the potential to remind us of the value of and threat of slowness
(Joyce & Mamo 2006)

A frightening space
It’s like a fear of getting lost… I must admit my confidence has gone a bit, I used to love to go to [ place ], that’s my favourite place in the whole world, and go up on the moors, but I haven’t been for a couple of years…. It’s just the route I think, its not the driving, it’s the route. I think I know the way but I'm not certain so I won’t take the risk (laughs) in case I'm never seen again. (Cath)

A disabling space
It’s the same as my wife, if I take her out, especially in ( place) ; you know the nibbles that are on the paving stones… for the blind… she hates walking on them…she hates them, you’d think she was sort of, walking on water the way she; you have got to steer her away from any… it never used to bother her. (male carer)

Benefits of outside spaces
Well she (daughter) takes me out to do my shopping, and then we have lunch, she goes home and I get the bus, 2 or 3 times a week, it’s just boredom on your own. (Rosie)

Benefits of outside spaces cont.
Oh yes, I’m quite free to go out, I live by myself so you know I can go where I want. I go up to [ the city ] and to meetings and things you know, yes. Sometimes I think ‘can I make the effort’ and I think ‘yes shift yourself woman’ and I get up and do it. (Eileen)

An enabling space
I know the buses to get on to, and I know most of the shops in town, but I couldn’t find where my hearing aid place was, but I found it in the end….And once I had been down to the hearing aid, and I came home, I wrote down where it was, because I need monthly batteries, so now I know where I am going, but I was frightened because I didn’t know where I was going, but when I saw that sign, it just went back to normal. (Rosie)

Places of reassurance
Well my mother, she was an advanced age but, and me father was a miner and she in the latter part of her life, she went on walks, they were deliberate walks because she was going back to where she felt comfortable. She was living on [ name of road ] way and she was bred and born in [ place ] and used to just go up and just say to me dad ‘I’m just going for a little walk’ and then she would get completely lost... (Tom)

Familiarity of place
Where I live I’m well known so if I open the door to go out there is always somebody “good morning, where are you going?” and I say “I’m just going for a little walk” and then I get further along “good morning lovely morning”, by the time I’ve spoken to a load of people you know. (Alison)

I feel comfortable in [ town ] you know…I mean I can come into [town] and feel happy but going into the town I think I would be a little bit dodgy… No I Just don’t go very far really, I keep to where I live you know….Where I know I’ll see people I know….I feel comfortable in [ town ]... I just don’t go very far really, I keep to where I live you know. I can come into [ town ] mind because me son lives in [ town ], well I just head for his house you know.....I think you know yourself how, where to go and who you know, where to visit and things like that. (Alison)

Therapeutic landscapes
A landscape where the “physical and built environments, social conditions, and human perceptions combine to produce an atmosphere which is conducive to healing.”
(Gesler 1996, p96).

‘For people with dementia, outside places and landscapes can be viewed as both ‘therapeutic’ and frightening.’
(Brittain et al, 2010)

Technologies of Place for those Living with Dementia by Katie Brittain

by British Sociological Association on Aug 04, 2010

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Technologies of Place for those Living with Dementia by Katie Brittain — Presentation Transcript