Our experiences and stories shape our personalities. And sharing and preserving memories are especially important for caregivers and individuals who have Alzheimer’s or dementia. Reflecting on pleasant memories is an effective exercise for individuals suffering from memory loss and can also be a great bonding experience for caregivers and loved ones. But how can you ease your loved one into remembering something when all memories seem so difficult? Enter reminiscence therapy.
What is reminiscence therapy?
Reminiscence therapy is a treatment that uses all the senses – sight, touch, taste, smell and sound – to help individuals suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s remember events, people and places. Caregivers may use simple conversation or objects to help recall memories. Because recent memories are often hardest for an individual with dementia or Alzheimer’s to recall, sharing memories from long ago can reduce stress and frustration while invoking positive feelings.
Reminiscence therapy is a treatment that uses all the senses to help individuals remember events, people and places.
Discussing experiences from the past may also help people feel more confident in their ability to communicate and can provide relief from boredom and depression. For families and caregivers, the sharing of these memories can help preserve family stories and histories.
Making a memory kit
One way to facilitate reminiscence therapy is by creating a memory kit. Memory kits are bags or boxes filled with items and activities centered on a place, time or theme. These kits can contain items related to something general, like a specific decade, or something more specific to the individual, like a favorite vacation spot or hobby such as cooking, dance or sports.
The kits can include a picture to look at, an object to touch, a song or poem to listen to or something to smell or taste. For instance, you may have a picture of a car similar to the one your family drove on a yearly road trip, or a small bowl of sand and seashells to recall a beach vacation. Old family pictures may also spark a discussion, and revisiting an old favorite song or movie may transport your loved one to another time. Iconic movies and actors from a period in time may also bring back happy memories.
The kits can include a picture to look at, an object to touch, a song or poem to listen to or something to smell or taste.
Memory kits are simple and easy to use, making them a popular choice for caregivers who want to stimulate conversation with a loved one. Some public libraries have started offering memory kits, and a highly rated game called “Shake Loose” offers fun prompts to help recall and share memories.
These organizations across the country see the benefits firsthand every day, as Barbara White, deputy director of the Akron-Summit Library in Akron, Ohio, told Spectrum News:
“The ultimate goal of this is to remove that stigma and fear around a dementia diagnosis and to really support the idea that for much of the dementia journey it is possible to live well,” she said. “Remaining active and engaged in the things that gave you pleasure, or just for your life’s work, is critical to being able to live abundantly.”
How do I help access memories?
Try to think of the memory box as the beginning of an open-ended journey, rather than quizzing your loved one about specific details of their recollection. Childhood pets, homes or experiences are often good places to start as more recent events are harder to remember. Caregivers should ask open-ended questions and offer prompts to help draw out a loved one’s memories and stories but should not think of it like a quiz or press loved ones to remember specific details or events. The point of the exercise is not only to help a loved one remember and improve cognitive function but also to help the senior engage in conversation and feel like a valued participant in the discussion.
Caregivers should ask open-ended questions and offer prompts to help draw out a loved one’s memories and stories.
Preserving memories
Some caregivers choose to create a memory bank to preserve these memories by keeping an electronic folder with photos of friends and family members and mementos from the person’s life or keeping a diary full of descriptions from the individual’s life. You could also create a video or audio recording of personal stories or a scrapbox full of photos, postcards and souvenirs. The best memory banks are ones that are easy for both the caregiver and the individual suffering from memory loss to access and use.
Bonding over memories
Whether you choose to use premade conversation cards or a personalized scrapbook of images from long ago, sharing past experiences and family history is a great way to connect and spend time with a loved one suffering from memory loss. Moreover, sharing memories from the past offers special insight into the person your loved one once was, and it helps you to see them as a person with unique experiences, rather than a patient.