Framing Dementia Care Practices: The Politics of Early Diagnosis in the Making of Care

Abstract

Dementia diagnosis is complex and hot topic. It is a public health priority, which highlights the need for early diagnosis. This is regarded as “the policy of diagnosis” and is explored and unfolded as a matter of fact in this article. The article draws on a practice theory as a research approach and shows how different modes of diagnosis frame certain care practices. Three different orderings are elaborated: the knowing, the governing, and the relational orderings. Two of these individualize and isolate the care for people with dementia, while the third ordering enacts diagnosis by connecting people, things, and places. An ethnographic approach is used drawing on interviews with 15 families of people with dementia and professional careers. The article contributes to a wider understanding of how “the policy of diagnosis” shapes some possible way to live with the disease and at the same time closes others.