We have been delighted to work with Gallery Oldham, using objects
to make memories happen. The Gallery have run many reminiscence activities but
this is the first time that the conversations and reminiscence have been
channelled into something that can be kept – art and poems.
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| Phil and Lois at the Launch of Making Memories |
MAKING MEMORIES IS A BOOK of creative 'recipes' for artwork and poetry stimulated by reminiscence. You won’t have come across many of these ideas before, because they've been invented especially for this book. All of the ideas were tried out by groups of participants, reacting to objects and ideas we brought along. The groups often included people with a dementia diagnosis and people with very pronounced physical problems, like mobility issues, or visual impairment.
The idea behind the Making Memories book is to share creative
ideas, designed to stimulate reminiscence and turn it into the form of poems
and artwork. Why do this? Making something from your experience can give it a
clearer shape, give it greater meaning - and that is a powerful positive
influence in anyone's life.
Anything like
this helps (ie. being in a
reminiscence session) just to be with people. It gives me something
to talk about, to listen to apart from my own voice. You verbalise when you're
on your own. Some activities are more interesting than others, but if you crave
company to be honest you'll go to anything. I go to bingo here, but really
we want conversation. I never played bingo before this, I had no interest. And
when we do play it, you can't talk properly you're too busy.
A
perfect activity is something like this: where we're doing something and
discussing it and you have to think. I can think to myself I've spoken to
someone, done something today. The good effect of it lasts longer.
In the bustle of a care home there isn’t always time come
up with new ideas for activities, especially activities that are unique. This
little book contains two years worth of creative experiments. Each of the
recipes are custom made to last for an enjoyable half hour or hour. Some of
them are even quicker, ideas for a 10 minute discussion, or quick little
conversation starters. Others are easy ways into making artwork or poems, but
which can go deeper if people want to for a day or more. They're a challenge, but an enjoyable
challenge.
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| a page from Making Memories. |
Objects stimulate memory - we've seen this time and again. Lois
passed a rolling pin around a group and people were immediately talking about
the kitchens of their childhood. I watched Glenys hand a cotton shuttle from a
mill round a group of older people with dementia - and the fascination for that
object was electric. It seemed to Lois and I that something could be done with
that energy, generated by significant objects.
If you look at something for a second you might get a tiny
glimpse of its power, but if you really focus on it you'll get bigger rewards.
Like anything, the more you put in the more you get out.
Creative activities can bring focus to objects, helping to find a
shape for the emotions and recollections that the objects bring. They can also
help you go deeper. If you try to really search for the words that describe,
say, how much an old teddy bear meant to you when you were a kid, you'll find
that the object stops being just an object, it becomes a doorway back into the
past.
We want to give
confidence and a voice to people, many of whom haven't drawn a picture
or written a poem for 50 or 60
years. So how to encourage confidence, without condescension? How to build a sense of pride in people's
achievements, although their skills have changed?
People can be shut off by embarrassment, of their own
volition. There's a stigma with mental health and society needs to address
that. But I find activities like this therapeutic. People feel comfortable, not
threatened, at ease with others. It engenders a feeling of confidence and
fellowship. The nice thing about this group is that people are affected by a
common theme - and others' duty is sharing (not caring) and improving quality
of life.
It's vital that we introduce activities into care
venues that challenge. Challenge our and their
pre-conceptions of what older people can achieve. It's true that not everyone will be able or
want to join in, however rather than always reducing activity to the 'lowest
common denominator' we can adapt
activities to peoples skills and abilities. Its a fine line. Acceptance
of new limitations, awareness of new possibilities. Most important of all there is no Right or Wrong, just
the adventure of having a go.
“Margaret would like to say that she had an excellent
afternoon with you. She said you're a great change from all the familiar faces
here and the TV too. She'd like you to come back, tomorrow.”
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