The ethics of decision-making in dementia: Making sense of senselessness

Dementia is one of our society’s greatest challenges. Little progress has been made in controlling it despite its affecting millions. Much of the dementia’s challenge lies within how we understand this experience. This work sought explore what dementia meant to those with dementia, and to those caring for them. Dementia’s meaning was found to be linked to our identities and our relationships with others. Fundamentally, dementia can be understood as a change within the systems that we experience as ourselves, our relationships, our culture and our language. Understanding this suggests new possibilities to improve and learn from this experience.