The social construction of risk by community psychiatric nurses and familycarers for people with dementia

This paper examines the conversational and discursive processes through whi ch situations are constructed as a risk by informal carers and community ps ychiatric nurses working with people who have dementia. The data were taken from 24 tape recordings of domiciliary meetings between primary informal c arers for people with dementia and their community psychiatric nurse (CPN). Data were analysed using techniques developed from conversation analysis a nd discourse analysis. The analysis identifies four stages associated with the construction of risk by informal carers and CPNs. These stages are full y discussed in relation to the provision of care.