Human Rights and Confinement of People Living with Dementia in Care Homes

Steele, L; Carr, R; Swaffer, K; Phillipson, L; Fleming, R

Human Rights and Confinement of People Living with Dementia in Care Homes

Steele, L

Carr, R Swaffer, K Phillipson, L Fleming, R

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Publisher:: Harvard School of Public Health
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Health and Human Rights: an international journal, 2020, 22, (1), pp. 7-19
Issue Date:: 2020-06-18

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Steele, L https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6944-7888
dc.contributor.author	Carr, R
dc.contributor.author	Swaffer, K
dc.contributor.author	Phillipson, L
dc.contributor.author	Fleming, R
dc.date.accessioned	2020-12-17T00:58:41Z
dc.date.available	2020-12-17T00:58:41Z
dc.date.issued	2020-06-18
dc.identifier.citation	Health and Human Rights: an international journal, 2020, 22, (1), pp. 7-19
dc.identifier.issn	1079-0969
dc.identifier.issn	2150-4113
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/144787
dc.description.abstract	This article responds to growing concerns in human rights practice and scholarship about confinement of people living with dementia in care homes. Moving beyond the existing focus in human rights scholarship on the role of restrictive practices in confinement, the article broadens and nuances our understanding of confinement by exploring the daily facilitators of confinement in the lives of people with dementia. The article draws on data from focus groups and interviews with people living with dementia, care partners, aged care workers and lawyers/advocates about Australian care homes. It argues that micro-level interrelated and compounding factors contribute to human rights abuses of people living with dementia related to limits on freedom of movement and community access of people living with dementia, at times irrespective of the use of restrictive practices. These factors include immobilisation and neglect of residents, limited and segregated recreational activities, concerns about duty of care and liability, apprehension of community exclusion, and pathologization and subversion of resistance. It is necessary to challenge the organisational, cultural, economic, and social dynamics that shape day-to-day, microlevel, routine and compounding factors that remove the agency of people living with dementia and in turn facilitate entrenched and systematic human rights breaches in care homes.
dc.format	Print
dc.language	eng
dc.publisher	Harvard School of Public Health
dc.relation	Dementia Australia Research Foundation Ltd
dc.relation.ispartof	Health and Human Rights: an international journal
dc.rights	Copyright © 2020 Steele, Carr, Swaffer, Phillipson, and Fleming. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.subject	1801 Law
dc.subject.classification	Public Health
dc.title	Human Rights and Confinement of People Living with Dementia in Care Homes
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	22
utslib.location.activity	United States
utslib.for	1801 Law
utslib.for	1801 Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - HJ - Health Justice
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	true
dc.date.updated	2020-12-17T00:58:37Z
pubs.issue	1
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	22
utslib.citation.issue	1

Abstract:

This article responds to growing concerns in human rights practice and scholarship about confinement of people living with dementia in care homes. Moving beyond the existing focus in human rights scholarship on the role of restrictive practices in confinement, the article broadens and nuances our understanding of confinement by exploring the daily facilitators of confinement in the lives of people with dementia. The article draws on data from focus groups and interviews with people living with dementia, care partners, aged care workers and lawyers/advocates about Australian care homes. It argues that micro-level interrelated and compounding factors contribute to human rights abuses of people living with dementia related to limits on freedom of movement and community access of people living with dementia, at times irrespective of the use of restrictive practices. These factors include immobilisation and neglect of residents, limited and segregated recreational activities, concerns about duty of care and liability, apprehension of community exclusion, and pathologization and subversion of resistance. It is necessary to challenge the organisational, cultural, economic, and social dynamics that shape day-to-day, microlevel, routine and compounding factors that remove the agency of people living with dementia and in turn facilitate entrenched and systematic human rights breaches in care homes.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/144787