Dementia and dress: embodiment, identity and personhood

Lead Research Organisation: University of Kent
Department Name: Sch of Social Pol Sociology & Social Res

Abstract

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Description The study concluded that:
- Dress continued to be significant in the embodied lives of many people with dementia whether living in domestic or care settings. This is true of both men and women.
- It remained entwined with personal and social identity. Individuals often retained a clear sense of the colours, styles, and 'fit' which embodied their personal aesthetic. Dress also reflected broader dimensions of social identity, such as class, gender and age. People also often retained clothing that had been particularly significant for identity, for example in work roles.
- Interest in clothes tended to decline with more advanced dementia, however they remained significant at a tactile and sensory level, part of the 'environment closest in'.
- Clothes have a capacity to act as memory objects, stimulating memories of past and current self, allowing direct material connection with earlier biographies.
- During the transition to care, clothes were often discarded, though 'small things' - jewellery, watches, handbags - continued to act as biographical and transitional objects in the context of wider displacement.
- Retaining good presentation in dress was significant for relatives who regarded it as a proxy for good practice, as well as a means to maintain connection with the person they knew.
- Clothes remained part of the interactional order of the home. Residents would compliment each other on dress in a manner familiar among women. Careworkers also used dress as an opportunity for positive interaction.
- Family carers, and sometimes careworkers, could become involved in 'curating' the identity of the person with dementia, maintaining the nuances and routines which constituted their personal style.
- This could however, raise complex questions about whose choices were being enacted, and whether current wishes could properly be imputed from past preferences.
- Dress forms part of the bodywork of care, and involves complex physical and emotional work, negotiating bodily boundaries of intimacy and privacy. Dress could thus be a site of struggle. This had different implications in formal and informal care.
The study has:
- contributed to the development of the emerging field of Cultural Gerontology, showing how even the lives of frail elders can be explored within a broader cultural context, helping to reduce their social and intellectual marginalisation
- shown how the concrete materiality of dress can be used to explore day-to-day embodiment now, or in the past through the enactment of memory, contributing to the wider Material Turn.
- extended the remit of dress studies to encompass the older population, frequently ignored in such work.
- developed new methodological tools to explore the experiences of people with dementia through wardrobe interviews in which respondents and researchers together discuss the meaning of dress, and through the use of the direct tactility of material objects.
- helped challenge the overwhelmingly negative account of dementia, supporting ideas of 'living with' the condition.
Exploitation Route The project has potential to influence dementia care practice, raising awareness of the significance of appearance and embodiment. Following our event and workshops, practitioners described changes they will make to their own care practice, recognising the significance of appearance as part of person-centred care, and the importance of relating to people with dementia through embodied and sensory practices.
The guidance we are developing for care-workers concerning appearance and dress fills a significant gap in this area, and has potential for influencing care settings. These findings will be disseminated through the network of contacts we have developed during the project.
The project also has potential for wider societal impact as part of the recognition of the embodied personhood of people with dementia. The project outputs and dissmentation work aims to make visible their voices and experiences, increasing understanding of their everyday lives, challenging negative potrayals of dementia, and emphasising positive ways of 'living with' the condition.
Sectors Education,Healthcare
URL http://www.clothingandage.org/projects/dementia-and-dress
 
Description We have continued to disseminate our findings in the practice field. We distributed findings leaflets via a range of organisations: Age UK, Alzheimer's Society, Crossroads, Maidstone and Malling Carers project, West Kent dementia forum. We organised a practice oriented event in London: Supporting Personhood through Dementia Care. Delegates reported that they would take away various ideas from this regarding appearance and dementia care, and incorporate these into their practice. One of the speakers Des Kelly had said he will be promoting the content of this within the National Care Forum. We have written for the practice audience in Journal of Dementia Care, 23(2): 20-23. Our work is cited in a list of learning resources on dementia for staff at the Royal United Hospital Bath. The guidelines developed in conjunction with colleagues at the University of Manchester on appearance, dress and care have been reviewed by people with dementia through the organisation Open Doors (Salford, Greater Manchester, England), and are due to be published online. We will publicise these guidelines through our various networks with care homes and third sector organisations. It is by its nature hard to trace impact on the wider climate of care. However we recently received the following unsolicited email: 'Dr. Buse I have worked in nursing homes for many years and oversee our dementia programs. We have done everything possible to provide quality of live and a creative spirit for our residents. However your work with Julia Twigg on clothing dementia dress identity is outstanding. Your insights are rich with profound, person centered and speak of a deeper ways of communicating with others 'Mr. Kitwood is proud looking down upon both of you. 'Bless you for your compassionate research. 'Paul Bufano MS,CTRS'
First Year Of Impact 2014
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Healthcare
Impact Types Policy & public services
 
Description 'He has always been a very smart man': Embodied identity, clothing and dementia' 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Paper presented at a seminar hosted by the Ageing and Dementia Research Group in the School of Applied Social Science at the University of Stirling. The seminar considered two emerging themes and fields of interest for dementia studies and more widely for the social sciences, namely embodiment and body work. Delegates included practitioners, students and academics.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description (a)Dressing the Ageing Demographic: A One-day symposium exploring ageing and dress, 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact • (a)Dressing the Ageing Demographic: A One-day symposium exploring ageing and dress, Royal College of Art, London, 18th October 2013. Symposium addressed to people in design and industry raising issues in regard to age and dress and dementia.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2013
 
Description Collaborative Learning Set: Multi-sensory Appearance Biographies 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact • *Collaborative Learning Set: Multi-sensory Appearance Biographies a workshop for care practitioners, co-facilitated by the researcher in collaboration with the University of Manchester, and the project 'Multi-sensory biographies', on 21st May 2014 at the University of Manchester.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014
 
Description • Multi-sensory Appearance Biographies Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact • Multi-sensory Appearance Biographies Workshop - held for care workers/practitioners at Clore Manor Care Home on 16th September 2014, co-facilitated by the researcher in collaboration with the University of Manchester, and the project 'Multi-sensory biographies'.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014