Intervening and Generating Knowledge in a Service for Persons with Alzheimer’s: The Case of an Action-Research

In the paper a case study about an organizational action –research in a service for persons with Alzheimer’s is presented. People involved in this context are solicited by many tension: the families by the Alzheimer disease; the health professionals by the profound transformations and the new social demands that concern their organization, and both by the complexity of the relationship family-patient-health professionals (i.e. the collaboration between families, caregivers and health services is hard; it is influenced by different variables within the family and by healthcare’s organizational features and services quality). Starting from the intervention request addressed by the managers of the service for Alzheimer patients (e.g. concerning emergent tension and difficulties between professionals and caregivers), a participatory action-research was conducted. In the paper the methodological features are presented, describing the process (e.g., phases; crucial attention points) and some outcomes (i.e., changing representations of care, patient, and service; elaboration of new practices).