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Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers

This article investigates the experience of male spousal carers for women living with dementia. While cultural discourses on care are highly gendered, social scientific research often addresses care relationships in gender-neutral terms. Setting out to address this matter, this qualitative research...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tolhurst, Edward, Weicht, Bernhard
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10531409/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37761689
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11182492
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author Tolhurst, Edward
Weicht, Bernhard
author_facet Tolhurst, Edward
Weicht, Bernhard
author_sort Tolhurst, Edward
collection PubMed
description This article investigates the experience of male spousal carers for women living with dementia. While cultural discourses on care are highly gendered, social scientific research often addresses care relationships in gender-neutral terms. Setting out to address this matter, this qualitative research study incorporated semi-structured joint interviews with 10 couples in which a male spouse cared for a woman with dementia. The aim was to explore how couples negotiate relationships and care following a diagnosis of dementia. The focus of this paper is on the perspectives expressed in these joint interviews by the male carers. A thematic analysis was undertaken to establish the key content of the men’s accounts. Three principal themes were identified: making sense of the condition; treating dementia as a problem to be solved; and engaging with professionals and support. The gendered basis of experience for male carers is explored within these themes, demonstrating how societal norms of masculinity intersect with caring roles. The paper concludes that a nuanced research approach to dementia care must continue to be developed, accounting for how gender shapes personal responses to the navigation of care relationships. Practitioners and policymakers must also consider how gendered experience shapes the identities and strategies of male carers.
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spelling pubmed-105314092023-09-28 Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers Tolhurst, Edward Weicht, Bernhard Healthcare (Basel) Article This article investigates the experience of male spousal carers for women living with dementia. While cultural discourses on care are highly gendered, social scientific research often addresses care relationships in gender-neutral terms. Setting out to address this matter, this qualitative research study incorporated semi-structured joint interviews with 10 couples in which a male spouse cared for a woman with dementia. The aim was to explore how couples negotiate relationships and care following a diagnosis of dementia. The focus of this paper is on the perspectives expressed in these joint interviews by the male carers. A thematic analysis was undertaken to establish the key content of the men’s accounts. Three principal themes were identified: making sense of the condition; treating dementia as a problem to be solved; and engaging with professionals and support. The gendered basis of experience for male carers is explored within these themes, demonstrating how societal norms of masculinity intersect with caring roles. The paper concludes that a nuanced research approach to dementia care must continue to be developed, accounting for how gender shapes personal responses to the navigation of care relationships. Practitioners and policymakers must also consider how gendered experience shapes the identities and strategies of male carers. MDPI 2023-09-08 /pmc/articles/PMC10531409/ /pubmed/37761689 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11182492 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Tolhurst, Edward
Weicht, Bernhard
Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers
title Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers
title_full Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers
title_fullStr Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers
title_full_unstemmed Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers
title_short Navigating the Impacts of Dementia: The Experience of Male Spousal Carers
title_sort navigating the impacts of dementia: the experience of male spousal carers
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10531409/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37761689
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11182492
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