Brainwork practices

Responsibilisation of dementia prevention in Australian aged care discourse

Bibliographic Data

ID7146253
AuthorsKristina Chelberg (0000-0001-8836-9686, Queensland University of Technology, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume45
Issue3
Pages429-454
Publication date2025-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAgeing and Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0144-686X • E-ISSN: 1469-1779
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0144686x23000284
OpenAlexW4380877098
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited55

Successful ageing continues to be a key theme in contemporary ageing discourses, where good physical and cognitive health in older age is an individualised responsibility. This paper explores how Australian aged care stakeholder discourse contributes to constructions of self-responsibility for brain health and dementia prevention in older persons. Brain health advice messages about diet, exercise and ‘brain fitness’ by aged care stakeholders are argued to construct a moral framework of ‘brainwork practices’ to prevent or delay dementia. This study performed discourse analysis of a sample of public online aged care stakeholder documents (N = 170) to reveal three key concepts in discursive constructions of dementia. The first concept characterises dementia as a disastrous force to be opposed; the second is a biomedical concept of dementia as preventable (or able to be delayed) in a ‘successful’ older age, while the third reflects neurocultural ideas that fetishise perfect memory as the best defence against cognitive decline and dementia. Identifying this matrix of responsibilising ‘brainwork practices’ messages by aged care stakeholders makes a contribution within social gerontology to revealing neoliberal conceptions of older age as an outcome of lifestyle and consumer choices, where dementia is constructed as ‘failed’ or ‘unsuccessful’ ageing

Cognitive decline · Construct (python library) · Dementia · Disease · Health care · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Stakeholder · Aging and Gerontology Research · Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research · Law · Medicine · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Psychology · Gerontology

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