Tove Harnett

As a counterweight to depersonalization, dementia care settings collect personal biographies, life stories, when residents move in. In Sweden, life story work has established itself as an indicator when measuring quality in dementia care. To facilitate the writing of life stories, care settings use a variety of life story templates, with a set of questions to be filled in about the care recipient.
Using a constructionist approach, the aim of this study was twofold: 1) to understand what versions of care recipients’ life story templates produce, and 2) to understand their intended use. Specific attention was paid to the assumptions that the templates communicate about persons with dementia.