March/April 2004
Research and Training

Dementia's moral maze explored

A University doctor has completed three years of research in a bid to help the carers of dementia sufferers with the moral questions thrown up by the condition.

Senior Lecturer at the University's Bradford Dementia Group Dr Clive Baldwin (pictured right) interviewed 60 people who have cared for someone with dementia.

The research was funded by the Alzheimer's Society and will be used by the charity to produce a guide for anyone who cares for someone with dementia.

Clive said: "Many carers said that they can feel very alone when they are faced with the moral dilemmas that caring for someone with dementia can bring."

For example, many carers would be unsure whether it was right to place a loved one into residential care. Other carers said they felt guilty about having to hide medicine in food, even if it was the only way it could be administered.

Clive added: "Carers become faced with problems that they could never have envisaged before, and many say that it turns morality on its head. These things can challenge their morals and also their relationship."

More than 750,000 people in the UK suffer from some kind of dementia, the most common of which is Alzheimer's. Clive carried out 120 interviews with the carers of sufferers aged from their early 40s to more than 100.

Clive said the guide, when produced, aims to help carers to come to terms with the issues they are faced with and to help them realise that they are not alone.

The research will be further developed to provide training and educational materials to support carers, voluntary organisations and professionals.

16 April 2004

next

top of page