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The Making of a Good Carer: Dementia and Family Caregiving in an Era of Refamilization and Responsibilization in the Nordic Context
Malmö University, Faculty of Health and Society (HS), Department of Social Work (SA).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-1447-6478
2025 (English)In: Journal of Medical Humanities, ISSN 1041-3545, E-ISSN 1573-3645, p. 1-14Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

A growing number of older people with dementia are continuing to live in their own homes for prolonged periods, leading to a growing number of family carers. An aging population and neoliberal austerity politics are contributing to increased family-provided care instead of formal care services. This is particularly noticeable in the Nordic context, where the welfare state has traditionally been based on universalizing policies designed to mitigate inequalities. The aim of this article is to explore societal expectations of family caregivers and the rhetoric surrounding family caregiving through analyzing a Swedish handbook entitled Dementia for Family Carers: A Handbook from the Swedish Dementia Centre. The textual analysis identifies the various responsibilities expected of family caregivers and illustrates how this responsibility can best be designed. The responsibility of family carers is perceived as natural and self-evident, especially in the context of spouses or partners. In such relationships, when caring for someone with dementia, the expectation is that the carer will transition into a caregiving role rather than continuing to be a life partner. Family caregivers are also expected to be central coordinators of formal and informal care. Furthermore, the responsibility includes the carers’ own self-care and ensuring they have the necessary knowledge and support. In tandem with the refamilization process, in which more family carers are providing care for relatives, idealizing and norm-making processes of family caregiving are emerging. This responsibilization process is crafting conceptions of the good carer, one who is responsible for relatives and formal care, while also prioritizing their own well-being.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer Nature, 2025. p. 1-14
Keywords [en]
Dementia, Informal caregiving, Family carers, Responsibilization, Textual analysi
National Category
Social Work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-75269DOI: 10.1007/s10912-025-09944-7ISI: 001459003900001PubMedID: 40178741Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105001821278OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-75269DiVA, id: diva2:1950532
Funder
Malmö UniversityAvailable from: 2025-04-08 Created: 2025-04-08 Last updated: 2025-04-11Bibliographically approved

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Alftberg, Åsa
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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
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  • en-US
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  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
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  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
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  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf