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This study shows how concerted bodily movements and particularly intercorporeality play a central role in interaction, particularly in joint activities with people with late-stage dementia. Direct involvement of bodies in care situations makes intercorporeal collaboration the basic form for engaging with people with late-stage dementia. By detailed analysis of a videorecording of a joint activity involving a person with late-stage dementia as an example, we show that the process of concerted bodily movements includes not only an interactive bodywork but also a reconfiguration of the routine activities and actions in situ. Reconfigurations often require, and are the outcome of, particular practices for the systematic modification of the embodied conducts of the participants and their use of artifacts in the surrounding environment. These practices, that we highlight in our study, are (1) staging activities through organization and re-organization of body parts, as well as artifacts (rather than using verbal descriptions of activities); (2) decomposing (parsing) activities into smaller parts possible for the person with dementia to perform (rather than using verbal action descriptions); and (3) providing embodied directions and bodily demonstrations of actions (rather than using verbal directives). As a result, we point to these practices for their reflexive roles in the change of the use of modalities in interaction: from mainly using verbal language to the prominence of visual depiction and bodily demonstration as necessary methods to facilitate the participation of people with latestage dementia in joint activities, Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare [2016-07207]

This study suggests that the concept of proto-conversation may be used to describe and understand communication with people with late-stage dementia who have lost their abilities to produce verbal language. In the study, a multimodal conversation analytic method is used to analyze sequences of interactions between professional caregivers in an elderly care home and people with late-stage dementia. The study shows how minimal actions (shift of gaze directions, vocalizations or bodily movements) not instantly recognizable as intentional, communicative conduct, may be recognized and treated as communicative contributions by engaging the person living with dementia in proto-conversations. In such interactional sequences, the caregivers do not only turn the contributions of persons with dementia into actions through their responses, but they also treat the persons as agentive actors and position them as partners in interaction.

Aims The aims of this study were to compare the patterns of long-term care (LTC) use (no care, homecare, residential care) among people with and without dementia aged 70+ in Sweden during their last five years of life and its association with sociodemographic factors (age, gender, education, cohabitation status) and time with a dementia diagnosis. Methods This retrospective cohort study included all people who died in November 2019 aged 70 years and older (n = 6294) derived from several national registers. A multinomial logistic regression was conducted to identify which sociodemographic factors predicted the patterns of LTC use. Results Results showed that the time with a dementia diagnosis and cohabitation status were important predictors that influence the patterns of LTC use during the last five years of life. Nearly three-quarters of people living with dementia (PlwD) used residential care during the last five years of life. PlwD were more likely to reside in residential care close to death. Women who lived alone, with or without dementia, used residential care to a higher degree compared to married or cohabiting women. Conclusions Among people without a dementia diagnosis, as well as those who were newly diagnosed, it was common to have no LTC at all, or use LTC only for a brief period close to death. During the last five years of life, PlwD and those living alone more often entered LTC early and used residential care for a longer time compared to people without dementia and people living alone, respectively.

AimsThe aims of this study were to compare the patterns of long-term care (LTC) use (no care, homecare, residential care) among people with and without dementia aged 70+ in Sweden during their last five years of life and its association with sociodemographic factors (age, gender, education, cohabitation status) and time with a dementia diagnosis.MethodsThis retrospective cohort study included all people who died in November 2019 aged 70 years and older (n = 6294) derived from several national registers. A multinomial logistic regression was conducted to identify which sociodemographic factors predicted the patterns of LTC use.ResultsResults showed that the time with a dementia diagnosis and cohabitation status were important predictors that influence the patterns of LTC use during the last five years of life. Nearly three-quarters of people living with dementia (PlwD) used residential care during the last five years of life. PlwD were more likely to reside in residential care close to death. Women who lived alone, with or without dementia, used residential care to a higher degree compared to married or cohabiting women.ConclusionsAmong people without a dementia diagnosis, as well as those who were newly diagnosed, it was common to have no LTC at all, or use LTC only for a brief period close to death. During the last five years of life, PlwD and those living alone more often entered LTC early and used residential care for a longer time compared to people without dementia and people living alone, respectively., Funding Agencies|European Union [764632]

Background: This study aims to further the understanding of communication involving people with late-stage dementia by highlighting assisted eating as an interactive joint activity. Assisted eating is, on the surface, primarily a care activity with the purpose of feeding the assisted person and thereby facilitating nutritional uptake. Helping someone to eat requires, nevertheless, fine-grained communication and co-ordination of both attention and embodied actions. Method: Using video recordings where a person with late-stage dementia is provided with assistance to eat, we show how assisted eating is sequentially organized into smaller, local communicative projects, and how each project’s completion is contingent upon the temporal co-ordination of the participants’ attention and embodied actions. Results: The analysis shows how actions necessary to carry out the eating (e.g., manipulating the food, bringing the food to the mouth) are also inherently communicative and achieved through an embodied participation framework. Discussion/conclusion: Our findings show that while the caregiving staff perform most of the actions required in the assisted eating, the person with dementia is a central agent whose actions – displays of engagement and disengagement – are decisive for the progression of the eating activity and play central roles in the interactive achievement of the activity

This study shows how concerted bodily movements and particularly intercorporeality play a central role in interaction, particularly in joint activities with people with late-stage dementia. Direct involvement of bodies in care situations makes intercorporeal collaboration the basic form for engaging with people with late-stage dementia. By detailed analysis of a videorecording of a joint activity involving a person with late-stage dementia as an example, we show that the process of concerted bodily movements includes not only an interactive bodywork but also a reconfiguration of the routine activities and actions in situ. Reconfigurations often require, and are the outcome of, particular practices for the systematic modification of the embodied conducts of the participants and their use of artifacts in the surrounding environment. These practices, that we highlight in our study, are (1) staging activities through organization and re-organization of body parts, as well as artifacts (rather than using verbal descriptions of activities); (2) decomposing (parsing) activities into smaller parts possible for the person with dementia to perform (rather than using verbal action descriptions); and (3) providing embodied directions and bodily demonstrations of actions (rather than using verbal directives). As a result, we point to these practices for their reflexive roles in the change of the use of modalities in interaction: from mainly using verbal language to the prominence of visual depiction and bodily demonstration as necessary methods to facilitate the participation of people with latestage dementia in joint activities, Funding Agencies|Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare [2016-07207]