Review of RTRT project: Czech Republic

Memorable moments that took place in our RTRT group

• “I am so happy, that I have found those old photos, I didn´t know we had them. I was so surprised, especially with the one where mother is sitting on the camel! Lots of memories came out”

  A lecture give by a person with dementia about the composer, Gustav Mahler

• Creation of collages (family carers together with persons with dementia)

• Collaboration with artists – their empathy for people with dementia, their abilities to help people retrieve their memories and to help them use these memories to make beautiful and valuable products

• Evident pleasure and joy of the people with dementia from their participation in the creative work with their memories

The main things we have learned

Successes to build on:

• Participation of people with dementia on creative work with remininiscence with the support of family members is possible and brings everybody lots of joy – it improves their quality of life

• Involvement of artists brings new dimensions and open new possibilities for the use of memories of old people with dementia

• It is an exceptional experience for everybody – also for the family members, for the artists and for the coordinators

Pitfalls to avoid:

• “Care for a person is very hard. Use of reminiscence stimuli is interesting and new at first, but later it is the same like other activities – it becomes boring and takes time”
  

  Carers have an urgent need to talk about the care, the problems, the accessible services and their quality

• They need to share the experience so we must recognize that for them reminiscence is not the only aim of the meetings

• The meetings take time and this must be allowed, so that people do not feel rushed

• It is really necessary to concentrate on the communication with people with dementia, to make space for them 

• The ground-rules for the group activity and the structure of the time we spend together is very important

The main things that the carers in our groups learned about reminiscence

• “It was something extraordinary for us, our children started to be interested in the grandmother, we can all sit and talk together about memories. Some new things from our past were discovered”
  

  They realised, that they still have  the possibility to discover something about the past lives of the family and of their relatives

• They discovered old photos, diaries, pictures, documents and other things and how useful these things could be in improving the quality of the care they could give to their relatives

• They felt joy when they discovered that something they had seen working in the group situation of the sessions could also work at home

• They were proud if they got an interesting idea how to use reminiscence for the improvement of the quality of life of their relatives with dementia (decided to help the person to participate at the meeting of alumnus, to go with them to their home village, to visit wardrobe department of a film studio etc.)
  they realised, that it was necessary to go out and continue social life together with people with dementia – they were motivated to buy a wheelchair, to go to exhibitions, to the concerts etc., as they had done in their earlier lives

What the people with dementia in our groups gained from the project:

• “It was so nice, I wish so much to meet again”
  

  Something was added to their quality of life: it was a sort of health promotion (they moved out of their flats, the enjoyed the society of other people, they felt the  atmosphere of the café)

• They gained a sort of energy and they really enjoyed the resulting increase in capability

• They felt valued and in control when they were involved creatively in the process of making artistic products around their memories, such as a game, a landscape, cups and plates with the pictures they had chosen)

• They expressed that they would have liked to meet again, to continue...

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