Markings: Boundaries and Borders in Dementia Care Units

Abstract

This visual essay discusses material markings in a nursing home and the boundaries and borders negotiated by them. Based on participant observations made through in-situ drawings in three dementia care units, I present two types of markings. The first kind of marking involves how other people wrote the names of residents on things as a way to distinguish them. The second type of marking involves how residents reconfigured materialities in different situations to make a space for themselves and/or other residents. I suggest that the ways in which seemingly trivial markings become entangled with residents' identities and agencies require ethical responsiveness.

Material Citizenship: An ethnographic study exploring object–person relations in the context of people with dementia in care homes

“…For example, one study which explored the materialities of care in relation to people with dementia in care homes found handbags to be an important object for female residents; the ‘rummaging in handbags’ sought to create boundaries of privacy and facilitated a sense of identity (Buse & Twigg, 2014, p. 11). Another study observed how people living in a dementia care unit reconfigured materialities to make a space for themselves and/or other residents (Cleeve, 2020). Other work, which does not include people with dementia, but is nonetheless relevant, found that interactions with material culture (such as hand‐held vacuum cleaners) help to facilitate interaction and meaningful relationships (Lovatt, 2018, 2020).…”

Drawing in-situ: Matters of care and representation in daily life with dementia

“…This may be valuable for furthering care practices. In previous studies (Cleeve, 2020;Cleeve et al, 2020). we have discussed how seemingly trivial materialities have profound consequences for persons with dementia living in institutional settings, arguing that care practitioners need time and space to reflect on this.…”

“…In a previous study, we demonstrated how illustrations (which were not made in-situ) were useful for asking staff members about their experiences working in dementia care (Cleeve et al, 2020). Accordingly, the in-situ aspect may not be necessary for eliciting meaningful conversations or reflections.…”

Living the everyday of dementia friendliness: Navigating care in public spaces

“…A materialities of care approach focuses on neglected but crucial aspects of meaningful care, namely the ‘significance of mundane materials as part of social practice’ (Buse et al, 2018 , p. 244). Uniting both new materialist theories in STS and work on material culture in health‐care settings (Buse et al, 2018 ), this body of work foregrounds the deeply relational character of care, one that emerges through a complex array of people, things and places (Cleeve, 2020 ). This perspective calls attention to the significant role of objects in practising care, making visible the otherwise overlooked ‘“ordinary,” tacit and non‐verbal aspects of care practices’ and highlights how ‘materialities are not merely a backdrop for care interactions, but play an active role in constituting relations of care’ (Buse et al, 2018 , p. 245).…”

“…Researchers in this field have explored the deep significance of material objects such as handbags and their contents (Buse & Twigg, 2014 ) and material markings (Cleeve, 2020 ) for supporting identity and asserting spatial boundaries for people living with dementia; they have demonstrated how materialities can be enrolled in the negotiation of dementia care between carer and cared for (Driessen, 2018 ); and they have demonstrated the complexity of the array of social and material elements assembled to ensure care (Ceci et al, 2019 ). This valuable body of work tends to be based within institutional frameworks of health‐care settings with their structured and controlled environments (for instance Buse & Twigg, 2018 ; Cleeve, 2020 ; Driessen, 2018 ) or the domestic home space, which is relatively protected from the potentially judgmental scrutiny of strangers (for instance Araujo et al, 2020 ; Ceci et al, 2019 ). We extend and develop these insights by considering dementia care outside such settings and look instead at care as it occurs in public , shared, communal leisure and commercial spaces.…”