Dementia Care

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Vol 5 No 5 October/November 2016 Australian Journal of Dementia Care 9
groups of people with
dementia and their carers
meeting and revisiting their
shared past experience and
exploring it in a variety of
ways, many involving
different art forms, objects,
multisensory stimuli and non-
verbal communication. A
sizeable number of volunteers
also participate. The project
has been long-lasting, going
through a number of phases,
always evolving in an attempt
to provide an inspiration to
family members,
empowerment for people with
dementia, and generating new
strategies for family and
professional carers.
Faith, who has been
involved in evaluating the
scheme, has identified its key
features as:
• People with dementia and their
caregivers participate together.
• Caregivers have some time
separate from the people they
care for.
• Involvement of volunteers
makes the group sessions feel
like normal social occasions,
and volunteers also provide
additional personal attention
and friendship between
meetings.
• Failure-free friendly groups to
utilise people’s strengths.
• Arts-based activities to broaden
and extend nonverbal
communication.
(Gibson 2004 p242).
In 2012 in the UK, Catherine
Ross paid a visit to the project
operating at that time and
recorded that each group was
made up of at least six pairs
(person with dementia and
carer), and had an artist
attached to it as well as
volunteers and group leaders.
This made for a very intensive
staff/participant ratio. She
also drew attention to two
other significant factors: firstly
the advanced age of most of
the volunteers:
“Their desire to be with, and sit
alongside people with dementia is
a deeply respectful starting point.
They can draw effortlessly on
their own memories of songs,
moments, habits and styles of
many years ago – something that
may need explaining to those of a
younger generation, and in so
doing, the moment may be lost.”
She also noted: “…the highly
creative element of improvisation
and intuitive risk-taking led by
these experienced group
facilitators…” (Ross 2012).
The benefits of the
Remembering Yesterday,
Caring Today project are
various, and Pam identifies
one of the most significant of
them in the following passage:
“One consistent element was
the carers’ surprise at the extent
of intact, but hitherto untapped
memory revealed by the people
with dementia. Knowledge of this
made many carers sit up and take
new notice of how they addressed
the ‘carees’, what they said about
them and in front of them, and
how it was obviously worthwhile
to make new efforts at
communication by calling on
retrievable past experience. Many
have noted how the project has
opened their eyes to how much
their person with dementia can
remember and talk about, given
the right stimulus and supportive
environment. They have also
understood that more is noted,
recognised and enjoyed by their
caree than can necessarily be
reflected back in speech, but that
participation is undoubtedly
reassuring and pleasurable
nevertheless. They have had fun
together with their caree in ways
beyond their hopes and belief; this
has helped them to remember the
importance of their joint past in
under-pinning their ever-
changing relationship in the
present” (Schweitzer 1999 p19).
Person-centred care
As if the part Faith Gibson has
played in the reminiscence
movement was not sufficient
achievement for one person, I
have to celebrate her
contribution to the wider
world of dementia theory and
practice made as a result of a
fortuitous conjunction of a
commission and her readiness
to fulfil that request.
In 1999 the Journal of
Dementia Care (JDC) held
conferences in the UK at which
it inaugurated an annual Tom
Kitwood Memorial Address.
An edited version of the first
address given by Faith was
published in JDC under the
title Can we risk person-centred
communication? (Gibson 1999).
If I had to choose one
article/essay as essential
reading for all interested in
communication and the
challenges dementia throws
down to the caring profession,
this would be it.
It has Faith’s characteristic
sense of organisation, clarity,
fluency, range of reference and
unflinching honesty of
utterance. Its 3000-4000 words
really deserve an article to
themselves. Suffice it that I
will illustrate its quality from a
paragraph which occurs near
the end. Answering the
question posed by her title,
Faith writes:
“We must employ whatever
power we have in the world of
dementia care for this purpose.
We must use our present
knowledge, our skills and
feelings, to communicate. We are
morally obliged to continue
working in extending our limited
understanding, developing our
embryonic skills and taming our
deep anxieties” (Gibson 1999).
References
Gibson F (1998) Reminiscence and
recall: a guide to good practice.
London: Age Concern.
Gibson F (1999) Can we risk
person-centred care? Journal of
Dementia Care 7(5) 20-24.
Gibson F (2011) Reminiscence and
life story work: a practice guide.
London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers.
Gibson F (2004) The past in the
present: using reminiscence in
health and social care Baltimore:
Health Professions Press.
Ross C (2012) Remembering
together. Journal of Dementia Care
20(3) 22-24.
Schweitzer P (1999) Remembering
yesterday: a European perspective.
Journal of Dementia Care 7(1) 16-
21.
Schweitzer P (2006) Reminiscence
Theatre: making theatre from
memories. London: Jessica
Kingsley Publishers.
Schweitzer P, Bruce E (2006)
Remembering Yesterday, Caring
Today: reminiscence in dementia
care. London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers.
John Killick has worked as a
communicator with people with
dementia for more than 20 years,
has edited six books of poems by
people with dementia and written
many articles and books about
person-centred care,
communication and
creativity. Contact him at:
The reminiscence
movement has
succeeded in
establishing life
history and
medical history as
complementary
approaches and of
equal importance