Aging and Social Justice: A slow-motion virtual conference by Celeste Pang
As we have all seen, COVID-19 has been a tip of an iceberg, exposing deep layers of social stratification and inequities. From the mass deaths in long-term care…
Tag: Aging
In and outside the nursing home: On the (im)possibilities of meaningful contact while being held apart by Natashe Lemos Dekker
Ben (77) wrote this poem when he became unable to visit his wife Lise in the nursing home where she lived, expressing the loss and desperation of suddenly…
On Vulnerability, Resilience, and Age: Older Americans Reflect on the Pandemic by Sarah Lamb
Every morning, Americans wake up to fresh news of the heavy toll the coronavirus pandemic is exerting upon vulnerable older people—from the likelihood of developing a more severe…
How is the pandemic affecting people with dementia? A case study by Dena Shenk
Our team is completing a rapid appraisal study of the perceptions of frontline long-term care (LTC) workers in a southern state about care during the COVID-19 pandemic. One specific…
“Out of options:” The implications of COVID-19 for hospitalized patients with cognitive impairment by Kelly Colas
“How about a walk today?” I asked Mr. T each morning I arrived to the hospital, visiting him on my morning rounds. Mr T. grinned back at me…
Population Ageing and COVID-19 Infections in Sri Lanka by Kalinga Tudor Silva
This essays builds on my previous research on history of malaria epidemics in Sri Lanka, intergenerational support mechanisms for elderly and ongoing research work on identity, infection and…
Those Who Come Early: Reflections on the Social Standing of Senior Citizens in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan by Erika Takahashi
Morning Queues The drugstore opened at ten in the morning in a Tokyo suburb. Despite it being a cold, rainy Monday at the beginning of April, seven people…
The power of bingo during COVID-19 by Carrie Ryan
As lockdowns impose physical distancing, communities are imagining new ways to connect, and there is one surprising, shared tactic communities across the world are using to bolster social…
Caring in the time of corona: Technological possibilities and limitations by Matthew Lariviere
“Now is the moment to put the failures of the past behind us, and set our sights on the NHS being the most cutting-edge system in the world…
“There are worse places to spend a lockdown”: Privileged and at risk British retirees in Spain by Emma Fàbrega
It was a sunny Tuesday morning, at the beginning of March 2020. The dirt pétanque field in a Catalan coastal town was filled with English chatter about golf,…
Virginia’s story: How the COVID-19 crisis can help us think about older adults who live in perennial abandonment by Chiappori Magdalena Zegarra
V: Oh sweetie, don’t leave me. Magdalena: I have to go home now. But on Monday, I can bring you the Coca-Cola you asked me for. V: I’m…
Of grandparents, memories and the pandemic by Tannistha Samanta
While growing up in a small town in the eastern state of Bengal (India), our summer vacations would be spent in Kolkata at the maternal grandparents (or mamar bari,…
Covid-19: Bringing the social back in by Tine Buffel
The impact of changes – social and medical – brought about by Covid-19 will not be known for some time. So far, in the UK at least, numbers…
COVID 19 in the life of elderly people in rural Russia: A crisis of confidence, backed up by fear by Konstantin Galkin
At the heart of this ethnography are two stories of my informants, Ekaterina and Marina, who live in the countryside, in Karelia (a province in north-west Russia) and…
Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things: Eldercare in Wuhan under COVID-19 by Zhe Yan
When the pernicious effects of COVID-19 manifested clearly first in Wuhan, the entire city and the whole of Hubei Province came to a standstill. The lockdown of Wuhan…
Sticky notes by Simon Cohn
I remember when I was a lot younger and my grandmother was still alive, her flat became increasingly filled with small pieces of paper attached by tape to…
Disrupted connections: On participation in caring for a mother with dementia by Tanja Ahlin
On a sunny, stifling afternoon, my friend, an Ayurvedic doctor, ushers me into a scantily furnished examining room of his clinic in central Kerala, South India. There, a…
Changing Time by Janet Weston
History and dementia are both concerned with time. Writing history is all about folding time, making sense of things that have become confused and confusing with the passage…
The Stories Continue by Annelieke Driessen
Much to our pleasure we got many positive responses following the publication of our series, ‘thinking with dementia’. Some of these responses suggested novel directions in which we…
Thinking pain by Annelieke Driessen
Care worker Annika announces that she does not want to go to Mr Moran. “He always complains.” “I’ll go”, says her colleague Robin, and turning to me he…
Opening up shrinking life-worlds by Maarten van Westen
Lives change dramatically as dementia progresses. Using observations of people suffering from obsessions and compulsions, I will analyse this change along three dimensions. Obsessive-Compulsive Disord…
The House by Laura Vermeulen
The question of how Willem was coping, alone in the big house, had come to concern many of those surrounding him. Over the past couple of months, Willem…
The final station by Susanne van den Buuse
The sun wakes her up. But Mrs Wijngaard keeps her eyes closed. She is 90 years old and sits quietly in her armchair in her apartment in the…
George, the dog by Emily Yates-Doerr
Babe, my grandpa, was born on the kitchen tiles of a small Seattle home. His dad, whose own grandpa had run a seedy downtown brothel, would disappear and…