Living and Loving Dangerously
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
identity - choices Memory - Cognition DEMENTIA - Early onset Inability to consent inhibition-disinhibition mental capacity |
"What! I'm married to you? Oh!" Treatment - medication 'Secure (safe)' environment 'Holistic assessment'? |
Existing relational behaviours Interrelational needs Social identity/expectations Yes, but we're married ... had 40 years together ... Family bias, prejudices.. Access to support: |
Rape, Sexual abuse, crime Capacity to give consent Lasting power of attorney - Human rights Access to supervision - |
Prompts:
Danny Leigh. Critic's choice - Films on release: Queen at Sea. Life&Arts, FTWeekend, 19/20 September, 2026, p.18.
https://depijp.rialtofilm.nl/en/films/queen-at-sea
So many difficult conversations. All on their own unique continuum in terms of sense-making for all concerned.
A 'new' diagnosis at age 60; versus one at 44. Families seeking to control disclosure of the diagnosis from the patient. Clinical and family debate about this.
Finding a person locked-in the house, while their partner 'nips' to the shops. A person having their freedom to go out, on their regular walk -despite acknowledged risks. (When they are known by people on their route - community care in action. Receiving a call from a neighbour; or the neighbour who knows where you park and can intercept you, on arrival or departure to express concerns. Or, even as you venture out for a walk with their neighbour of many a year. Categorise them as you will: [nosey, caring, concerned, public spirited, neighbourly, or (healthily) curious]?
Other discussions of grief at the loss of a person they have loved - in every way. A grief that presents new dark dimensions to what has gone before. Complicated by a state of early onset of memory loss. An ongoing disintegration of personhood and identity. An inability to consistently express thoughts, wishes, and choices. An inability to give informed consent. A loss taunted by retained physical desirability. What does love, sex, compassion mean now? What is the sum now, of love expressed over 'x' years? Hearts hollowed out, of what can be so important to a couple. Not vital to all. But for others, a source of conjoined affirmation, joy, warmth, companionship, a celebration of life and being human.
How to share that grief even amid close friends and family, who cannot cope themselves and withdraw? What of the preparedness of professions to manage such situations? What structures are in-place for team meetings, clinical supervision and inclusion in training, especially safeguarding?
From the bibliography (lower sidebar):
Hodges, B.E. (1989) The Health Career Model, IN, Hinchcliffe, S.M. (et al.) 1989 Nursing Practice and Health Care, 1st Edition only, London, Edward Arnold.
Adams, T. (1987) Dementia is a family affair. Community Outlook, Feb, 7-8.
Merritt MK, Procter N. Conceptualising the functional role of mental health consultation-liaison nurse in multi-morbidity, using Peplau's nursing theory. Contemp Nurse. 2010 Feb-Mar;34(2):158-66. doi: 10.5172/conu.2010.34.2.158. PMID: 20509800.
Murphy, K., Welford C. (2012) Agenda for the future: enhancing autonomy for older people in residential care.International Journal of Older People Nursing. 7, 75–80.
Kernohan, W. G., & Jones, P. (2023). Hodges’ Health Care Model as a Framework for Quality. Paper presented at Interprofessional work: developing oral care and the health workforce for the future, Brescia, Italy.
https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/hodges-health-care-model-as-a-framework-for-quality
Jones, P. (2025). A Conceptual Mapping Exercise of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards in Residential & Community Care Using Hodges' Model and Threshold Concepts. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 31: e70085. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.70085
Jones, P. (2025), A Generic Model and Conceptual Framework to Prime Curiosity Across Health and Social Care Disciplines to Facilitate Lifelong Learning. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 31: e70252. https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.70252
Previously: 'capacity' : 'consent' : 'law' : 'safeguarding'
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965
