Fox Sarah, Thompson James, Keady John
Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Int J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2025 Aug;40(8):e70136. doi: 10.1002/gps.70136.
This study considers how people affected by dementia living in their own homes understand and interpret everyday aesthetics and what relevance this holds in their everyday lives.
Nine households, comprising ten family carers and seven people living with dementia, shared their self-identified meaningful moments of connection reflective of their personal understanding and interpretation of everyday aesthetics. Data collection involved a range of creative and self-initiated approaches, including scrapbooking, photography, and elicitation interviews. Data were analysed using reflective thematic analysis.
Six discrete but interlinked themes were identified, namely: (1) Connection with others; (2) Connection with materiality; (3) Connection with self-image; (4) Connection with pride and societal value; (5) Connection with enjoyable activities; and (6) Connection with the lived environment, that revealed how people affected by dementia self-identify everyday aesthetic experiences in their daily lives.
Our findings show these self-identified experiences span multiple physical and psychological domains of everyday life, each of which acts to support the personhood and identity of the person living with dementia. We suggest that development of a new model of care based on everyday aesthetic needs and informed by people affected by dementia, might bridge the gap between theory and practice in person-centred care. Going forward, developing care practices and support systems which focus on identifying and fulfilling the aesthetic needs of people living with dementia may offer a novel way to enhancing independence and personal well-being.
本研究探讨了居家的痴呆症患者如何理解和诠释日常美学，以及这在他们日常生活中的意义。
九个家庭，包括十名家庭照顾者和七名痴呆症患者，分享了他们自认为能体现个人对日常美学理解和诠释的有意义的联系时刻。数据收集采用了一系列创造性的自主方法，包括剪贴簿制作、摄影和启发式访谈。使用反思性主题分析法对数据进行分析。
确定了六个离散但相互关联的主题，即：（1）与他人的联系；（2）与物质性的联系；（3）与自我形象的联系；（4）与自豪感和社会价值的联系；（5）与愉快活动的联系；（6）与生活环境的联系，这些主题揭示了痴呆症患者如何在日常生活中自我识别日常美学体验。
我们的研究结果表明，这些自我识别的体验涵盖了日常生活的多个生理和心理领域，每个领域都有助于支持痴呆症患者的人格和身份认同。我们建议，基于日常美学需求并受痴呆症患者影响而开发的新型护理模式，可能会弥合以患者为中心的护理中理论与实践之间的差距。展望未来，开发专注于识别和满足痴呆症患者美学需求的护理实践和支持系统，可能会提供一种增强独立性和个人幸福感的新方法。
