Rune Svanström

This thesis is focusing on the lived experience of dementia. Both living with a partner as well as living alone. There is no unequivocal picture of how it is to live with dementia and few studies have been carried out in homes of afflicted persons. A deeper understanding of how it is to live with dementia can be a good starting-point for caring and the organisation of care.    The aim of this thesis is to describe, clarify and explain the lived experience of dementia from a lifeworld theoretical point of view. Another aim is to illuminate how decision makers look upon persons with dementia, their life and their care. Interviews and observations have been used to collect data. Participating informants have been couples with one partner suffering from dementia, persons with dementia living alone, politicians, administrators and social workers. Data was analysed with a phenomenological and a hermeneutical approach.   To live as a couple where one part has dementia (study 1) implies to ...

Svanström, Rune, 2009. När livsvärldens mönster brister – erfarenheter av att leva med demenssjukdom (When the Lifeworld Texture Ruptures – Experiences of Living with Dementia), Acta Wexionensia. No 178/2009. ISSN: 1404-4307, ISBN: 978-91-7636-662-2. Written in Swedish with a summary in English. This thesis is focusing on the lived experience of dementia. Both living with a partner as well as living alone. There is no unequivocal picture of how it is to live with dementia and few studies have been carried out in homes of afflicted persons. A deeper understanding of how it is to live with dementia can be a good starting-point for caring and the organisation of care. The aim of this thesis is to describe, clarify and explain the lived experience of dementia from a lifeworld theoretical point of view. Another aim is to illuminate how decision makers look upon persons with dementia, their life and their care. Interviews and observations have been used to collect data. Participating info...

Growing old entails an increased risk of disabilities and illnesses such as dementia. The orientation in Sweden on national level is that individuals remain in their own homes if desired and receive person-centred home care. The aim of this study was to describe the experience of an educational program and its influence on daily provision of care to persons with dementia. A life-world approach was used. Data were collected through group interviews with care providers in the context of home. The findings are presented in five themes: Increased knowledge about dementia and treatment, Relationship-building in order to provide good care, Open and flexible approach conveys calm, Continuity and flexibility are cornerstones in the care and Perceived improvements. This person-centred educational intervention resulted in a care that was based on each individual’s personality, preferences and priorities in life. Education given with continuity over time is key to improving provision of care t...

The aim of this study was to elucidate the meaning and dimensions of the concepts uncertain, control, secure and risk. The results from the concept determination were discussed in relation to the phenomenon of women's health and illness experiences following a myocardial infarction (MI). A method of concept determination was used. The findings disclose the complexity of the women's existential uncertainty that was experienced by women following an MI. This uncertainty is an important matter in relation to the women's health processes and to their well-being. In these processes the concepts control, secure and risk play a central role. Western culture of today seems to be characterized by a search for greater safety. Lifestyle disorders, such as an MI, seems to make people more aware of specific risk factors that may be avoided. Women who have suffered an MI want to be as safe as possible in order to not fall ill again, but live well. The women's ambition to achieve greater safety may lead them to feel even greater uncertainty. It is a challenging act for healthcare professionals to balance their support, to give information and to care for patients with acute coronary syndromes.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the lived experience of dementia for spouses where one of them is diagnosed as having dementia. The study has been conducted using a phenomenological approach. Unstructured interviews were chosen in order to investigate the informants’ lived experiences of dementia, both for the person with dementia and for his or her spouse. The essence of the phenomenon, the lived experience of dementia, is that the persons with dementia and their spouses live in a heteronomous existence in which they are lost and are strangers in their own world. The result of this is a life without coherence and a new but unknown meaning that can make them feel uncertain and puts them in a quandary. Whatever those with dementia and their spouses do, they have no real influence over their situation, which leads to feelings of awkwardness, perplexity, and futility.

The aim of this study was to elucidate the meaning and dimensions of the concepts uncertain, control, secure and risk. The results from the concept determination were discussed in relation to the phenomenon of women’s health and illness experiences following a myocardial infarction (MI). A method of concept determination was used. The findings disclose the complexity of the women’s existential uncertainty that was experienced by women following an MI. This uncertainty is an important matter in relation to the women’s health processes and to their well-being. In these processes the concepts control, secure and risk play a central role.Western culture of today seems to be characterized by a search for greater safety. Lifestyle disorders, such as an MI, seems to make people more aware of specific risk factors that may be avoided. Women who have suffered an MI want to be as safe as possible in order to not fall ill again, but live well. The women’s ambition to achieve greater safety may...

Suffering and well-being are significant aspects of human existence; in particular, suffering and well-being are important aspects of patients' experiences following diseases. Increased knowledge about existential dimensions of illness and healthcare experiences may be needed in order to improve care and reduce unnecessary suffering. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to illuminate the phenomenon of suffering experienced in relation to healthcare needs among patients in hospital settings in Sweden. In this study, we used a reflective lifeworld approach. The data were analysed with a focus on meanings. The results describe the essential meaning of the phenomenon of suffering in relation to healthcare needs. The patients were suffering during care-giving when they felt distrusted or mistreated and when their perspective on illness and health was overlooked. Suffering was found to arise due to healthcare actions that neglected a holistic and patient-centred approach to care. Unfortunately, healthcare experiences that cause patients to suffer seem to be something one needs to endure without being critical. The phenomenon can be described as having four constituents: to be mistreated; to struggle for one's healthcare needs and autonomy; to feel powerless; and to feel fragmented and objectified. The study concludes that there are problems associated with patients experiencing suffering at the hands of healthcare providers, even if this suffering may not have been caused deliberately to the patient. Consequently, conscious improvements are needed to lessen the suffering caused by care-giving, as are strategies that promote more patient-centred care and patient participation.

Growing old involves many changes in life and implies an increased risks of illness and different forms of disabilities. Life may change in a radical way when a person gets a disease like dementia or moves to a nursing home due to disabilities or needs. In both cases, it often leads to an increased dependency on care where the patient becomes exposed and vulnerable and thereby at a higher risk for experiencing different forms of suffering. The aim of this study was to elucidate and gain a deeper understanding of elderly patients' experiences of suffering in relation to community care in nursing homes and home care services. A lifeworld hermeneutical approach was used. Phenomenological interviews and conversations with an open approach were conducted and analysed with a focus on meanings. The findings were presented in four main themes; an absence of the other in care, an absence of dialogues, a sense of alienation and a sense of insecurity. The findings in this study revealed that persons who were cared for in nursing homes and home care services sometimes were exposed to an unnecessary suffering. The suffering sometimes was caused by various caring actions, that is, unnecessary suffering. The suffering caused by care that aroused was due to caregiver's inability to be present, to show their face, and truly meet the patient. Suffering from care increased the elderly patients' feelings of insecurity, loneliness, and alienation; this seemed to be the foundation for patients' experiences of being outside a human community. There was a lack of knowledge and understanding about the patient's lifeworld.