ABSTRACT:
When an older adult who does not have close family develops dementia, who cares? Posed thus, "who cares" is both an informational question about who provides the informal caregiving support that is needed as dementia progresses, and a provocation to consider who might be neglected by current health care and policy arrangements. Answering informational questions about the lives, resources, challenges and needs of older adults with dementia who are "elder orphans" (i.e., who have no living spouse or children) is both difficult, and important. In this presentation I will share initial findings from a methodologically unusual study that uses qualitative analysis of existing data from a medical research study, to seek answers to anthropological questions about social and caregiving relationships for a vulnerable and largely invisible group of older adults.
