Background: The purpose of our project is to explore the lived experience of people with alcohol-related dementia and their carers to explain the impact of social exclusion. The literature review has been completed. The empirical study will be a qualitative study using narrative storylines (Keady et al., 2009) to understand the Australian experience of alcohol-related dementia. Methods: Academic and publishers’ databases (CINAHL, ScienceDirect, Wiley Interscience and SAGE) were searched using the terms: ‘alcohol-related dementia’, ‘diagnosis’, ‘carer’, ‘services’, ‘treatment’ and ‘stigma’. Snowballing techniques were also used to source papers and Google Scholar for grey literature. Findings: A total of 35 articles were retrieved and reviewed. An overall theme of social exclusion was found to explain the experience of people with alcohol-related dementia and their carers. There were 7 sub-themes discovered to explain this social exclusion: (1) stigma; (2) homelessness; (3) under-recognition and lack of timely diagnosis; (4) inappropriate service provision; (5) carer education needs; (6) carer needs ignored and (7) recovery pathways. Conclusion and Implications for Practice: The findings from the literature review illustrate that before people with alcohol-related dementia and their carers can have an opportunity to adequately live with alcohol-related dementia the issue of social exclusion must be addressed. Our proposed empirical study will provide a voice for those with alcohol-related dementia and their carers and understand how social exclusion can be addressed to improve the quality of life for people with an alcohol-related dementia and their carers.
History
Citation
Brighton, R., Curtis, J. Traynor, V. (2011). Explaining social exclusion in alcohol-related dementia: a literature review. DANA Conference - Exploring the Frontiers of Drug and Alcohol Nursing Melbourne: Drug Alcohol Nurses of Australasia.