Dr. Laura O'Philbin:

I love talking about reminiscence therapy. It is great. Reminiscence therapy is a psychosocial approach which is done either in a group or individually with a person living with dementia where you think or chat about things from the past, usually using some kind of a stimulus be it music, photographs, videos or objects. Many people use objects for reminiscence. What is nice about reminiscence is that sometimes people use this anecdote about dementia that the person cannot remember what they had for breakfast but they remember what happened 40 years ago. That is not always the best anecdote to use but people have this kind of memory for those earlier years that is still intact and often it represents these well-rehearsed anecdotes a person feels very comfortable talking about. Therefore, if you are someone living with dementia and you are in those middle to later stages and are struggling to follow a conversation or do not feel confident in a social setting, if suddenly you are talking about something you are really used to talking about, whether it is your friend from school or a specific day something happened, that can be really transformative. It enhances confidence and brings about better communication. I worked with people directly with reminiscence therapy and a lot of family members would say that people were saying things the family members never knew about them or had said more in a week than they had in the past three years. It really stimulates this part of a person. They get to think about and remember things but can do it confidently. They are not constantly thinking they do not know or do not remember because they do remember it and remember it clearly. It is not the most perfect intervention - no intervention is - but it is a really lovely thing to do and I have been very privileged to have so many gorgeous moments with people. You might find an old video on YouTube and they would be shocked and say they were there that day or that they remember it. The person comes alive and really transforms. As an intervention, it is lovely. In the ASI, we have this intervention called sporting memories which is reminiscence focused on sport. We work with local sports clubs and the GAA, in hosting sporting reminiscence sessions which is lovely. Many people in the community come together and talk about matches and players. It is a lovely way for the community and for people living with dementia to come together and spend time in a meaningful way.