Eliciting user perspectives on what works

Social care research has moved gradually in recent years to include the sub jective perspective. Dementia care, which in many ways is still in its infa ncy, has lagged behind in this development, and much research has been info rmed by the carer rather than the person with dementia. As a young subject area, it is right that dementia care should look around for lessons that ca n be learned from other disciplines. This paper will consider how research with people with learning difficulties has developed a culture for hearing the views of service users. It will outline various methodologies, with con siderations of their strengths acid weaknesses. The paper will then review research in dementia care which features the subjective experience, and wil l finally draw out lessons and identify possible ways forward. Copyright (C ) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.