ABSTRACT
The impression that people have about old age and dementia is very varied and usually negative. Most people with dementia live at home, some live in residential homes, even fewer live in nursing homes. According to the present state of knowledge, dementia is diagnosed when a number of health care professionals consider that a person's memory difficulties and behavioural changes are caused by irreversible brain damage. Accepting that a certain 'awareness context' exists in dementia allows carers to have some insight into and to find caring ways of dealing with the affective/emotional experiences of sufferers. The family members of persons with dementia also have difficulties. They face a legion of practical and emotional problems. Only when the person with dementia has died can family members re-orientate themselves. With dementia this 'present absence' of the beloved is also a reality. Here, too, feelings of hope and guilt exist for a long time.
