The social lives of Dementia caregivers

Abstract

In the coming decades, there may not be enough professional caregivers to meet the needs of elderly and disabled persons; family and friends will take on more informal care roles than in the past, with great social impact, yet the social literature lacks consistency and breadth. This exploratory, quantitative study organizes the disparate social literature on caregiving and dementia care, suggesting a critical theoretical framework would synthesize social factors more fully. Three hypotheses test this framework on the dementia care population from Caregiving in the U.S. 2015, specifically looking for variables that compound to exert an outsized influence on outcomes. Two hypotheses are confirmed: people of color tend to develop dementia far earlier than whites and persons who are multiply marginalized perform more activities of daily living than those who are not. Findings demonstrate a role for intersectionality and queer subjectivity in dementia care analyses and interpretation.