The very word
technology can leave a lot of people cold and the speed of change over the last
few years has been quite bewildering; casting up an ever growing array of
gadgets and gizmos. However, developments in the world of printing have enabled
one company to produce personalised photo albums, or memory books that can form
a lifeline between people with Dementia and their carers.
The
albums are designed to encourage life story work, an exercise that academics
have shown both encourages communication in dementia and also makes that
communication pleasurable, as it introduces a feel-good reminiscence factor for
the person whose life story it is. Chris Wilkins
is behind the Edinburgh based Caring Memories
and it took two years to develop the album, in conjunction with experts at the
Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling.
“Basically,
it’s about capturing memories from a person’s life,” he says. In dementia, when
short-term memory is impaired, “a lot of long-term memories are still alive and
very vivid. So life story work is about tapping into those memories, and using
various triggers to help people recount their past.” The Caring Memories book
is structured on these well-established life story principles, and provides a
project for the memory-impaired person, along with their family and carers, to
focus on as a basis for communication, says Chris. “It’s an activity which has
therapeutic value, and lots of other benefits—it means that the carer, for
instance, sees a person rather than a disease, and there’s a relationship you
can build on the basis of that.”
One such book
has been made by Mary and her daughter Ann. Mary who is 84 and has Alzheimers,
is a resident in an Edinburgh Care Home. For Mary and Ann, the entire process,
from putting the book together to using it on a day-to-day basis has been an
overwhelmingly positive experience, says Ann. Assembling the book took, “a good
few months,” she explains, “because we had to get pictures and then sit at the
computer with one of the volunteers who was helping us put the book together
and making up the wee story from things mum was saying . . . we would just look
at the pictures, and mum would tell us a wee bit about the pictures, and that
was how we managed to put the captions in. We had great fun doing it.” The
project came at just the right time to help distract both of them from the
initial bleakness of Mary’s move into
the care home, says Ann, providing them both with something positive to focus
on. “It was nice to have something that we could come in and do together,
something to look forward to each week.”
The finished
product is also a success, she reckons. And it is striking how simply opening
the book seems to bring Mary to life. As she leafs through the pages, the
pictures elicit fragments of stories from her; laughter; the odd tear—but they
are mostly happy memories, and Mary’s enjoyment is obvious
Chris Wilkins – www.caringmemories.net
