Personhood and Citizenship in Dementia Care
Summary
The intertwined concepts of personhood and citizenship underpin a transformative approach to dementia care that foregrounds the social, moral and political identities of people living with cognitive impairment. Personhood refers to the recognition of individuals with dementia as autonomous agents with ongoing capacities for self-expression, memory and relational engagement. Citizenship extends this notion to encompass rights, duties and social membership, urging practitioners and policymakers to foster inclusion, participation and agency in everyday life. Recent scholarship emphasises the relational nature of both constructs: personhood is enacted through meaningful interactions and narrative continuity, while citizenship emerges as a distributed achievement across care networks and community environments. This paradigm shift challenges deficit-based models, advocating instead for care practices that preserve identity, counteract stigma and cultivate a sense of belonging. Practical applications range from life-story interventions and sensory-rich environments to community-based arts programmes, all designed to sustain cognitive, emotional and civic engagement across the trajectory of dementia.
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Personhood and Citizenship in Dementia Care publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in personhood and citizenship in dementia care across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Personhood: The moral and social status granted to individuals, emphasising self-expression, identity and agency despite cognitive changes.
Citizenship: A framework recognising people with dementia as rights-bearing members of society, entitled to participation, autonomy and protection from discrimination.
Narrative identity: The ongoing construction of self through stories and autobiographical memories that provide coherence and meaning.
Embodied selfhood: The aspect of identity preserved in body-based memory and habitual actions that continue to ground personal continuity.
References
- Family relationships as a source of narrative identity of people with advanced dementia. BMC Geriatrics (2023).
- Embodiment and personal identity in dementia. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (2020).
- Conceptualizing citizenship in dementia: A scoping review of the literature. Dementia (2022).
- Citizenship as Distributed Achievement: Shaping New Conditions for an Everyday Life with Dementia. Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research (2018).
- Free to be: Experiences of arts-based relational caring in a community living and thriving with dementia. Dementia (2021).
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