A World of Touch in a No-Touch Pandemic Living with Dementia in a Care Facility during COVID-19 (original) (raw)

Touch is essential when living with dementia for communication and remaining connected with the world, and it is also unavoidable when performing body care. Thus, it is impossible to think of living and caring for people with dementia in the absence of touch. Drawing from my ethnographic fi eldwork conducted with therapy animals and people living with dementia in Sco ish care facilities, in this article I argue that the public health measures taken against the spread of COVID-19 infections need to be reimagined by taking into consideration the role of touch. Furthermore, I try to draw a ention to the lessons that we should learn about touch and the role of intimate bodily entanglements in dementia care from the high COVID-19 death tolls amongst British care home residents. KEYWORDS: atmosphere, a unement, body work, dementia, sensory anthropology, touch Her tiny hand, with skinny fi ngers like tree branches, gently pats my hand. Now and then, she straightens my hair and nods. I nod back and lay my other hand on top of hers. She is all a smile, a playful giggle at times, and holds on to my hand for as long as we stay next to each other. When I am on the other side of the lounge, she follows me with her deep brown eyes, and her smile fi lls up the room like the hot air in a balloon. When I come back, and she looks distracted or confused, I lightly touch her shoulder. She turns her head to me, welcoming me with her smile. Sometimes Rusty, the therapet, joins our conversation. He greets us with his wet, curious nose, nibbling on some forgo en crumbs lying in Jean's lap. Jean bursts into laughter and reaches to Rusty's long fur. He responds to Jean's touch by turning his head for another stroke of his ears. At the other end of the leash, Jim, the human therapet handler, sprints into our wordless conversation, holding back Rusty's ram-bunctious enthusiasm. He lightly pets Rusty to guide him in how to behave with Jean. We all converse in this bubble, emerging through our touch.