Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Person We Knew: Perceptions Of The Identity Of Loved Ones With Dementia By Family Caregivers, Amber Jannusch, Dena Huisman

Speaker & Gavel

While several studies have looked at the identity of dementia patients, most focus on the point of the view of the patient. However, caretakers’ and family members’ view of the identity of the dementia patient is unstudied. This study attempts to see how family caregivers’ view of their family member’s dementia manifests in communication about the loved one. This study is a preliminary examination of family caregivers’ constructions of the identity of their loved one, revealing that caretakers have one of three views: the patient without an identity, the patient as a different person, or the patient as “not lost” …