An exploration of dementia caregiving as an occupation within the Sikh community.

Abstract

Dementia is the umbrella term for the range of illnesses and disease symptoms which affect the brain, with Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia being the most common (Alzheimer Scotland 2013). A preliminary review of interdisciplinary literature exploring the experiences, perceptions and understanding of dementia within Black Minority Ethnic (BME) communities uncovered a shortage of Occupational Therapy research. This thesis explores BME communities' experiences of dementia. The literature review informs the proposal of a focused ethnographic study - "an exploration of dementia caregiving as an occupation within the Sikh community". This study will recruit 5 participants from the Glasgow Sikh community who are currently the primary caregiver for a family member with dementia and use semi-structured interviews and participant observations to collect data which will provide relevant knowledge of this subject for the Occupational Therapy evidence base and provide knowledge on caregiving for the Sikh community and professionals working with this client group