What role can leisure play in enabling people to sustain their chosen lifestyle post diagnosis with dementia?

About the Project

Discourse about dementia and best practice in addressing its malign outcomes has progressed over the last generation from a purely medicalised lens, through person centred and personhood approaches, to those where the social citizenship of individuals is promoted. This champions the human rights of individuals and an “everyday” approach to citizenship - where what people do and their ability to do the things they wish to do is key. Leisure, the activities and interests people hold that they enjoy and/ or wish to pursue in time outside of obligations such as work and family, is one such phenomenon closely allied to this understanding of social citizenship.

However, the prevailing political and policy environment risks nullifying the opportunity for hope and liberation this paradigm offers. Linked to contemporary concerns for the resourcing of services, significant initiatives, such as a new national strategy for dementia in England and NHS targets for diagnosis, have been shelved. Painful as this is likely to be for people living with dementia and their families, the blow back is felt almost as acutely by practitioners and planners of services, as they endeavour to align provision to support people to live well. For example, colleagues offering social prescribing and activities coordinators based within residential care homes.

Thus, more needs to be known about leisure in the context of life with dementia, and now is the moment to make these enquiries.

A project in this area will incur some additional costs that will be met by the student, for fieldwork and consultation with experts by experience. The exact costs will depend on the specific project and will be discussed both at interview and kept under review throughout the duration of the project.

Supervisory team:

• Director of Studies: Dr Chris Russell, Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester
• Supervisors: Dr Ruby Swift, Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester
• External Advisor: Dr Tania Wiseman (Associate Professor Occupational Therapy, University of Swansea)
• Research Centre: Association for Dementia Studies