Member Article

Short stories help to ignite fond memories for Hull care home residents

Raleigh Court, a care home owned by Hull-based Hica Group, has teamed up with Hull Libraries to mark Dementia Action Week and National Memory Day.

Dementia Action Week (May 21 – May 27) is a campaign ran by the Alzheimer’s Society, encouraging people to take actions – big or small to improve the lives of those living with dementia, while National Memory Day on May 24 was created to promote the importance of poetry and creative engagement for people living with memory loss.

To mark both occasions, Hull Libraries invited residents from the care home, which provides care for older people and people with dementia, to join them for a storytelling session, designed to reignite fond memories.

The session featured a host of short stories and poems chosen specifically to trigger memories that were relevant to the residents. To build up interactivity and engagement between the residents, the activity coordinators would use prompts to encourage them to think about their memories.

Kath Pearce, acting manager of Raleigh Court said: “Reminiscence-led therapy is a very important activity for many of our residents. They really enjoy reading the stories together and asking each other about past memories. It’s great to see the difference that simple activities like this can have on uplifting their mood and increasing engagement in group discussions and conversations.

“We are really grateful to Hull Libraries for hosting the Share a Story session and allowing us to mark Dementia Action Week and National Memory Day in such a fun way.”

The Hica Group is a not for profit organisation which operates 15 care homes across Hull and East Riding, along with two retirement villages. The organisation also runs a homecare service which provides approximately 11,500 hours of support from four regional offices in the north of England.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Hica Group .