An account of personal autonomy for people living with dementia.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

People living with dementia see autonomy as central to their well-being, and loss of autonomy is one of the things people diagnosed with dementia fear the most. Effective support of autonomy requires us to understand carefully what autonomy is and to structure care plans and health policy in accordance with that understanding. Many recent social scientific studies of autonomy in people with dementia do not carefully operationalize the term "autonomy." This is problematic because autonomy is a highly ambiguous term that points to a complex reality. We distill from the relevant philosophical and empirical literatures a conceptually clear and empirically informed account that is relevant to the experience of people living with dementia.

Research design and

SUBMITTER: Stumpf ADH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12578510 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature