‘God hasn’t given up on them’: Christian dementia carers’ narratives of experiencing and challenging ‘anticipatory grief’ and ‘social death’

It is common to find the experiences of those who care for people living with dementia allied to ‘anticipatory grief.’ Correspondingly, some have posited that those living with dementia undergo ‘social death’ before they die physically. This chapter will draw upon interviews with people living with dementia, their carers, and theological educators in the UK. Participants articulated both the grief, social change and challenges associated with dementia, and the desire – not least on account of their Christian faith – to resist suggestions that those living with dementia were lost, socially insignificant or spiritually or socially ‘dead’. Supporting carers of people living with dementia thus requires churches to both respond caringly to manifestations of anticipatory grief and social death and affirm the value, agency and social significance of the person living with dementia, for their own and their carers’ sakes. This chapter closes with some practical suggestions for striking this balance.