Abstract
In this chapter, I explore the concept of homesickness for people with dementia in nursing homes. The chapter is based on interviews I did with three persons with dementia and their family caregivers about home and homesickness. I interpret the findings in light of four commonly mentioned aspects discussed in the phenomenological literature on home, proposed by Dekkers (Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 30:335–349, 2009). These are ‘house and home’, ‘time’, ‘dwelling and travelling’ and ‘others’. With the help of these aspects I show how some images of home for people with dementia are general and cross-cultural, while others are culturally situated. I draw on the phenomenology of illness to argue that dementia is in itself a form of homelessness in the world. However, I argue that instead of being passive victims of this homelessness, the participants’ expressions of homesickness can also be seen as active attempts at home making.
What do you expect me to do when
I wake up and I think I am there
I can smell the ocean, and I can hear the waves
I have no other choice but to try to get home
—Anna, 93 years old
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Haugen, I. (2020). Homesickness for People with Dementia. In: Pasveer, B., Synnes, O., Moser, I. (eds) Ways of Home Making in Care for Later Life. Health, Technology and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0406-8_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0406-8_4
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