Sharing the Journey: Exploring a Social Leisure Program for Persons with Dementia and Their Spouses

In this article, we highlight the marginalization and exclusion persons with dementia and their spouses often face in leisure practices and spaces. We then explore aspects of a peer-led community social program aimed at inclusion. Framed in creative analytic practice, the experiences of members of the social program are shared through a composite narrative. This narrative tells the story of a couple from the point of diagnosis who seek support and education and eventually find deep social connections with others who are on a shared journey. We draw from this narrative to explore meanings of inclusion for spousal couples on the dementia journey and use a social justice lens to consider how to address experiences of exclusion in leisure practices and spaces.