Call for Papers: 115th AAA Annual Meeting 'Evidence, Accident, Discovery ' 16th-20th Nov. 2016, Minneapolis
Please consider submitting a paper proposal to our panel:
Facing dementia: embracing uncertainties or exercising control?
Organisers: Silke Hoppe, Susanne van den Buuse and Mark Smit (University of Amsterdam)
Discussant: Aaron Seaman (University of Chicago)
Short abstract:
How do people with dementia and their caregivers deal with the uncertainties this disease brings forth? Do they embrace the uncertainties and improvise, or do they try to exercise control?
Long abstract:
In this panel we are interested in different ways people with dementia and their carers deal with uncertainties. We want to explore the tension between attempts to exercise control over uncertainties related to (the person with) dementia and improvisations in care situations.
Dementia has a big impact on the lives of the people affected. People with dementia describe losing control over their lives as an important and difficult aspect regarding their disease (Clare, 2003; MacQuarrie, 2005). Research on coping strategies of people with dementia shows a tension between uncertainty and control: a lot of people experience dementia as a threat, which they try to keep out of their minds while at the same time using problem-oriented coping strategies such as compensating consequences of the disease (De Boer et al. 2007).
For caregivers, a sense of control is associated with more active coping and lower levels of depression (Boss, Caron, Horbal and Mortimer, 1990). Planning, regulations and routines provide this control, but as one takes a closer look at the practice of daily life and care, following rules and routines is not (all) what people do. They improvise, for dealing with old age requires constant improvisation. As Jeanette Pols writes: "caring is unpredictable; it is not easy to prescribe 'methods' or rules of how to act. Caregiver and patient will have to work it out together" (Pols, 2006). Care thus has to be constantly negotiated and reinvented every day.
In this panel we encourage submissions that critically explore how in dealing with the uncertainties in dementia, care takes shape in practice as people navigate between acts of control and acts of improvisation. How do the actors handle uncertainty? What does uncertainty do to their relations? How do they deal with the tension between minimizing risks and honoring people's rights? What is the value of improvisation and what are its limits? In this panel we especially welcome ethnographically informed submissions on dementia, relating to topics such as aging, end of life and cognitive impairment, but are open to papers regarding other themes related to dementia.
If you are interested to be part of this panel, please email your abstract of no more than 250 words to Silke Hoppe ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) before 15 March 2016. We will review the abstracts and select the ones that make the most coherent panel. Acceptances will be issued by 1 April 2016. Please note that if your abstract will be chosen, you have to register for the conference and submit your abstract online before 15 April 2016. For any inquiries, please do not hesitate to email the panel convenors Silke Hoppe ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>), Susanne van den Buuse ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) and Mark Smit ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>).
Works cited:
Boss, P., Caron, W., Horbal J., and Mortimer, J. (1990) Predictors of depression in caregivers of dementia patients: boundary ambiguity and mastery. Family Process, 29(3), 245-54.
Clare, L. (2003) Managing threats to self: awareness in early stage Alzheimer's disease. Social Science & Medicine, 57, 1017-1029.
De Boer, M. E., Hertogh, C. M., Droes, R. M., Riphagen, I. I., Jonker, C. and Eefsting, J. A. (2007). Suffering from dementia - the patient's perspective: a review of the literature. International Psychogeriatrics, 19, 1021-1039.
MacQuarrie, R.M. (2005) Experiences in early stage Alzheimer's disease: Understanding the paradox of acceptance and denial, Aging & Mental Health, 9(5), 430-441.
Pols, J. (2006) Washing the citizen: washing, cleanliness and citizenship in mental health care, Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, 30(1), 77-104.
Vriendelijke groeten/Kind regards,
Susanne van den Buuse
PhD candidate
Long-term Care and Dementia Partnership
Centre for Social Science and Global Health
University of Amsterdam
Nieuwe Achtergracht 166 (Room C5.03)| 1018 WV Amsterdam | The Netherlands
T: +31 (0)20 525 2598 | M: +31 (0)6 55 23 98 71 / +31 (0) 6 44 24 03 68
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | home.staff.uva.nl/s.vandenbuuse<http://home.staff.uva.nl/s.vandenbuuse> | www.partnershipforcare.uva.nl<http://www.partnershipforcare.uva.nl/>
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