Remembering Together: Reminiscence Training, 2010-2012
Welcome to the RTRT area of the website where information about our 2010-2012 project can be viewed. Click a flag in the left column to find out about the RTRT training that took place in each country or read the content below to find out more about this project:
The first European Reminiscence Network project (2010-2012) was a development of the RYCT project. It also was intended to support families living with dementia, to help them develop new social networks and friendships around their shared experience, both past and present, and to encourage creative and artistic expression on the part of carers and people with dementia through reminiscence and the arts.
European Partners in the RTRT project
There are 11 partners in the Remembering Together partnership coming from 10 EU countries. Each partner has formed and run two reminiscence groups for families who are caring for a relative with dementia at home (click on starred countries on the map above to view each country's RTRT project report).
About the RTRT project
The 11 partners in the Remembering Together partnership have each set up two reminisence groups. These groups have met weekly during the project, and all have followed a similar programme of creative reminiscence, using as a starting point the book “Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today: reminiscence in dementia care”, published 2008 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers. For further details about the book and ordering information: click here.
The groups have taken a different topic each week, starting with early memories of childhood and home and working through the life course. Each topic has been explored through a range of creative reminiscence activities including non-verbal approaches.
All groups have worked with practicing artists from fields of drama, music, dance, visual arts and film. They have all created end-products based on their reminiscence work and these products (and in some cases records of the working process) can be seen on the individual country pages of this website. The overall statistics showing the number of people involved in these projects can be viewed at the end of this page.
International meetings
The partners have held 4 meetings over the two years of the project:
- Belfast in Northern Ireland, UK (September 2010)
- Kotka in Finland (April 2011) - see image above
- Barcelona in Spain (November 2011)
- Kassel in Germany (June 2012)
Between 40 and 60 delegates from the 11-country partnership have attended these meetings and reported on their progress, sharing ideas and gaining mutual support. Those attending the international meetings have included staff and volunteers of partner organizations, representatives from other organizations who have been involved in delivering the project in each country, and family members who have participated. All meetings have included a social and cultural programme for participants, enabling us to get to know one another and share experience. The image below shows a reminiscence session for project partners from diff countries at the Barcelona meeting:
At the first meeting a 2-day training course ensured that we were all delivering roughly the same project with the same aims and objectives. In the second and third meetings we shared progress and discussed any local difficulties in the broader context of the partnership. At the final meeting in Kassel we are sharing the artistic products created with the people with dementia and their family carers, and these appear also on the page of every country represented in this website.
