As the population ages and the prevalence of dementia increases, caring for a relative living at home with dementia has become a reality for many families worldwide. Studies have shown that families are confronted with diverse difficulties as they try to address the challenges involved in providing care. By understanding how they manage daily life, formal service providers become better equipped to meet the diverse needs of these families. Learning how families live with memory loss and cognitive changes calls for an understanding of the shared context surrounding the person, including the collective of people, and their connections. With the research method of ethnographic case study, we followed eight families living at home with dementia for two years. All participants had been placed on a waiting list for a specialised dementia day care programme. The analysis presented here is based on three cases which reflect widely different experiences and situations. We describe how these families dealt with their daily living at home, if and how they made use of the formal support available and what approaches they found helpful for improving their lives. The results show how the persons living with dementia and their care-givers drew on the collective of their backgrounds, surroundings and available support. With diverse arrangements, families tried to find ways to make their daily lives work out. But constant re-arrangement was necessary. This knowledge could be a central learning point for formal service to build on. While systematic or routine procedures in service provision can be helpful, time and space must be provided for professionals to understand families' different practices, so that they can provide family-centred support.

随着人口老龄化和痴呆症患病率的增加，照顾家中患有痴呆症的亲属已成为世界各地许多家庭的现实。研究表明，家庭在试图解决提供护理方面的挑战时面临着各种困难。通过了解他们如何管理日常生活，正规服务提供商能够更好地满足这些家庭的多样化需求。了解家庭如何在记忆丧失和认知变化的情况下生活，需要了解该人周围的共享环境，包括人们的集体及其联系。我们采用民族志案例研究的方法，对八个居家痴呆症家庭进行了两年的跟踪调查。所有参与者都被列入专门的痴呆症日托计划的等候名单中。这里提出的分析基于三个案例，它们反映了截然不同的经历和情况。我们描述了这些家庭如何处理他们的日常生活，他们是否以及如何利用可用的正式支持，以及他们发现哪些方法有助于改善他们的生活。结果显示了痴呆症患者及其照顾者如何利用他们的背景、环境和可用支持的集体。通过不同的安排，家庭试图找到让日常生活顺利进行的方法。但不断的重新安排是必要的。这些知识可以成为正式服务的核心学习点。虽然提供服务的系统性或常规程序可能会有所帮助，但必须为专业人员提供时间和空间来了解家庭的不同做法，以便他们能够提供以家庭为中心的支持。