Hel, ren, mätt och trygg - om omsorgspersonals syn på välbefinnande, självbestämmande och samtycke inom demensvården

Clean, fed, clothed and safe. Professional caregivers description of self-determination, consent and well-being in the dementia care. The aim of this study was to analyze how professional caregivers in dementia care describe older persons’ self-determination and consent. The aim was also to analyze how the staff described older persons’ well-being. The empirical material used was semi-structured interviews with professional caregivers working in two different nursing homes. Guided by social constructionism and Lipsky's theory about street-level-bureaucrats the conclusions suggest that although the staff find the older persons’ self-determination and consent to be important, they also present three themes that should be prioritized over older person individual self-determination. These themes were 1) older persons ’safety, 2) family members’ voices and 3) older persons need to be "clean, fed and clothed". With referrals to these themes the staff did not only justify acting against the law by neglecting of older persons’ right to self-determination and consent, but through their descriptions they also portrayed the older persons with dementia as incapable of making decisions about their own needs