“It Would Be Easier If She’d Died”: Young People With Parents With Dementia Articulating Inadmissible Stories

Hall, M and Sikes, P (2017) “It Would Be Easier If She’d Died”: Young People With Parents With Dementia Articulating Inadmissible Stories. Qualitative Health Research, 27 (8). pp. 1203-1214. ISSN 1049-7323

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Abstract

In the U.K. context where the emphasis is (quite rightly) on living well with dementia, on positivity and enabling approaches, it can be difficult for researchers to investigate and report negative experiences. Failing to re-present perceptions and experiences as they are lived, however, does a serious disservice to the research endeavor and can prevent policy and service development and positive change. In this article, we present some stories told by participants in an Alzheimer’s Society (United Kingdom) Funded project uniquely investigating the perceptions and experiences of children and young people who have a parent with dementia. Sometimes the stories were not easy to hear, especially when they challenged dominant master narratives around dementia. We discuss our view that when the young people we spoke with told us how things were for them, we were ethically bound to respect and disseminate their accounts.