We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Dementia Policy in Australia and the 'Social Construction' of Infirm Old Age.
- Authors
Hunter, Cecily; Doyle, Colleen
- Abstract
Twenty years of Australian dementia policy brought a previously marginalised group of infirm old people into mainstream aged care. This happened in the context of the interpretation of dementia as a disease process. Dementia advocacy has grown, and perceived problems around state versus federal responsibility in the matter of dementia care, and the integration of health and welfare responses to illness, have been addressed. Advocacy movements have kept dementia in the minds of those in control of the political agenda, and advocates have presented dementia care as a problem of population health rather than aged care. However, the emphasis on dementia as disease tends to categorise those people with the condition as a residual group in terms of health policy. It undermines the possibilities dementia policy has created for fostering a new public understanding of life in infirm old age. For societies dominated by a view of old age as an active period of life such understanding is crucial.
- Subjects
AUSTRALIA; DEMENTIA; HEALTH policy; SOCIAL constructionism; OLD age -- Social aspects; AUSTRALIAN history; AGING &; society; GOVERNMENT policy
- Publication
Health & History: Journal of the Australian & New Zealand Society for the History of Medicine, 2014, Vol 16, Issue 2, p44
- ISSN
1442-1771
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.5401/healthhist.16.2.0044