Competition highlights importance of reminiscence therapy

Care homes from across the UK are being invited to take part in the #GladtoCare competition designed to capture residents’ favourite memories and is being run by Person Centred Software with support from InteractiveMe and Sporting Memories.

In June 2019, NICE updated its quality standard on dementia to include the recommendation that people with dementia should be offered activities that can help promote wellbeing, which includes reminiscence therapy.

Reminiscence is recalling past events and experiences and is used as therapy for people with dementia. It may involve recalling experiences, sharing photos of family or positive events in the past. Reminiscence therapy has been shown to reduce aggression and challenging behaviour. As people with dementia have problems with short-term memory, but not long-term memory, reminiscence can give them a sense of competence and confidence through using a skill they still have.

Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive and director of health and social care at NICE, said: “People with dementia can find it harder to take part in activities, to engage socially, to maintain their independence, to communicate effectively, to feel in control and to care for themselves. Providing enjoyable and health-enhancing activities like music or reminiscence therapy can help with this.”

This year’s #GladtoCare competition theme is Favourite Memories. To enter the competition, care staff are invited to chat with residents about their favourite memories and simply enter their favourite memory on a dedicated page on Person Centred Software’s website. Care staff can submit a favourite memory entry for every resident in their care home.

The prizes are a tablet and three InteractiveMe profiles for a care home and a Sporting Memories Care Settings Package for the runner up.

InteractiveMe provides an Occupational Therapy service and bespoke app to enhance mental stimulation and evidence one-to-one engagement with care home residents. Sporting Memories is a community-based sport and physical activity project to help tackle people’s dementia, depression and loneliness using the power of sporting reminiscence.

The competition closes at midnight on 31 October 2019 and the winning entry will be selected by a panel of judges from the social care sector including Professor Martin Green, Chief Executive of Care England. Person Centred Software provides an electronic care planning and evidence of care system, Mobile Care Monitoring, to over 1,200 care homes in the UK. In March 2019, Person Centred Software launched a new ‘Who I Am’ feature to enable staff to provide a more responsive and personalised quality of care for residents living with dementia and improve their quality of life. As dementia diagnoses rise, dementia care in residential care settings is becoming increasingly important.