Issues of the Sociology of Dementia in the Era of Post-Diagnosis

Abstract

    Issues surrounding the topic of dementia have long been mainly defined and discussed as being limited to caregiving problems. However, current social movements and public discussions about dementia include the way of life of people with dementia and developing dementia-friendly communities.
    This paper clarifies sociological issues within the transformations mentioned above in the following three ways. First, I review how the phenomenon of dementia has been socially understood and treated using the concept of medicalization. Second, through a brief introduction of two empirical studies of caregiving interaction surrounding dementia that I conducted, this paper illustrates the caregiving features under medicalization of dementia and shows the essential difficulties in caregiving practices concerning disease progression of people with dementia. Third, I clarify the difficulty experienced in the field of dementia care that was mentioned above theoretically, referring to the discussion over impairment and disability among scholars with disability, which are the key concepts of disability studies. By undertaking such work, I clarify sociological issues over dementia, especially focusing on the points related to family problem studies.