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

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