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Blurring and Bridging: The Role of Volunteers in Dementia Care within Homes and Communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2020

VIKKI MCCALL Open the ORCID record for VIKKI MCCALL [Opens in a new window] ,
LOUISE MCCABE ,
ALASDAIR RUTHERFORD ,
FEIFEI BU ,
MICHAEL WILSON  and
MIKE WOOLVIN
VIKKI MCCALL
Affiliation:
Room 4S5, Colin Bell Building, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA Tel: +44 (0) 1786 467698; email: vikki.mccall@stir.ac.uk; Twitter @vikki_mccall
LOUISE MCCABE
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling
ALASDAIR RUTHERFORD
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling
FEIFEI BU
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling
MICHAEL WILSON
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling
MIKE WOOLVIN
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling
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Abstract

Policy makers across the political spectrum have extolled the virtues of volunteering in achieving social policy aims. Yet little is known about the role that volunteering plays in addressing one of the significant challenges of an ageing population: the provision of care and support to people with dementia. We combine organisational survey data, secondary social survey data, and in-depth interviews with people with dementia, family carers and volunteers in order to better understand the context, role and challenges in which volunteers support people with dementia. Social policies connecting volunteering and dementia care in homes and communities often remain separate and disconnected and our paper draws on the concept of policy ‘assemblages’ to suggest that dementia care is a dynamic mixture of formal and informal volunteering activities that bridge and blur traditional policy boundaries. Linking home and community environments is a key motivation, benefit and outcome for volunteers, carers and those living with dementia. The paper calls to widen the definition and investigation of volunteering in social policy to include and support informal volunteering activity.

Keywords

housingvolunteeringdementiacommunitiespolicythird sector
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 49 , Issue 3 , July 2020 , pp. 622 - 642
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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