Representing the Social Problem of Dementia: Reflexions on Carol Bacchi’s <i>What Is the Problem Represented to Be</i> Approach

Dementia is represented as a condition deserving urgent policy attention. In the United Kingdom (UK) substantial resources have been invested in it, including in earlier intervention and in basic science. This selective narrative review explores England’s national dementia policy and practices. It uses Bacchi’s framework of questions, grounded in a Foucauldian understanding of governmentality, to understand how policy initiatives, service re-orientation and lobbying campaigns shape dementia as a problem. This ‘What is the Problem Represented to Be’ (WPR) analytic approach helps explain why prevention has often been overlooked and reminds us that not all ‘stakeholders’ have the same motivations. Our preliminary conclusions are that Bacchi’s approach does elucidate the representation of dementia and illuminates how a ‘medicalindustrial-charity-complex’ shapes the representation of dementia. Bacchi’s approach could be used to construct an agenda for change in dementia research and care.