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Published on: February 16, 2011
The medical model and other constructions of self-neglect
1Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Stirling, Inverness, United Kingdom. william.lauder@stir.ac.uk
Abstract:
Nurses frequently encounter patients who neglect their personal hygiene and household cleanliness. Self-neglect is usually understood within the parameters of the medical model, with its need to objectify and categorize. The medicalization of self-neglect obscures the fact that patients and professionals may have different ideas about what self-neglect is and what it is not. This paper explores how the medical construction of self-neglect has come to dominate the self-neglect discourse and will also explore other possible ways of understanding self-neglect.
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