The Reminiscence Skills Training Handbook

Ann Rainbow

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351703260
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This easy-to-use guide provides an accessible workbook for reminiscence skills training. It includes: information on the history and definition of reminiscence work; the value of the reminiscence experience to older people and their carers as well as practical ideas and suggestions on how to use reminiscence in a beneficial and therapeutic way; how to set up, run and maintain group and individual reminiscence activities; training points and training activities for each section to enhance understanding by making links with the personal experience of the reader; and, emphasis on the role of reminiscence work in the social and emotional care of ethnic minority elders, people with dementia and older people who have been bereaved. This handbook will not only help to promote reminiscence work but also enhance everyday communication between carers and older people.

1 Reminiscence – Origins, Characteristics and Value

I do think that the present moment of the old contains all the past as well, which is vividly present as the present and makes it marvellously rich.

KATHLEEN MOORE, Joyce Grenfell – An Invisible Friendship

What Is Reminiscing?

The creative, absorbing activity of reminiscing is available to everyone. As life is experienced memory develops, vocabulary grows and our reminiscence reservoir begins to fill.

When reminiscing, individuals remember the past: life stages, family events and relationships, hopes, dreams, losses and achievements, social and historical experiences. Remembrances may remain as private thoughts, or be shared on a one-to-one basis or in groups. Memories may be of a single event, or a series of linked or disconnected recollections.

Beginnings

The desire and need to pass down memories, wisdom and knowledge to future generations has always been strong across ages and cultures.

In earliest times information about events was preserved for those who followed through drawings and symbols. With the growth of the written word came scribes who recorded events for posterity. In traditional societies storytellers have long had a role in passing down myths and sacred stories essential to the continuation of the way of life of a particular culture.

Traditional songs also have a role to play in communicating across generations the happenings and mood of a certain time. For example, the patriotic songs of the First and Second World War are evocative of the mood and concerns of soldiers and their loved ones.

Up until the second half of the twentieth century, the inclination of older people to reminiscence was viewed negatively; it was believed that ‘dwelling’ on the past would inevitably lead to increased confusion and disconnection from the present.

By adopting this disparaging view of reminiscing, many professionals were echoing the view expressed by Aristotle (1995 translation) over 2,000 years previously. He observed the tendency in older people to remember the past and equated the process with a lack of hope:

They live by memory rather than by hope for what is left to them of life is but little compared to the long past.

Increasingly since the 1970s, reminiscence work with older people has built up a reputation as being a ‘hopeful’ activity: acknowledged as offering a stimulating social experience. The beginning of a change of attitude to reminiscence work by social and health professionals is partly attributed to a paper written by a leading American psychiatrist, Robert Butler (1963), in which he strongly stated the view that reminiscing was a normal and healthy mental activity for older people to enter into.

There was an overwhelmingly positive response to Butler’s endorsement of reminiscence work. Rose Dobroff, a social worker with older people in New York, writing in 1984, summed up the sense of liberation felt by carers in being encouraged to pursue reminiscence work:

The old were free to remember, to regret, to look reflectively at the past and try to understand it. And we were free to listen and to treat rememberers and remembrances with the respect they deserved.

In Britain, reminiscence work in day and residential settings for older people was further promoted by the publication in 1981 of Recall by Help the Aged. This was a reminiscence aid that took the form of six sequences of audio tapes and slides. It provided a readily available resource for professionals working with older people to begin to explore reminiscence work. The idea had been initiated by Mick Kemp following his experience in the 1970s when, as a Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS) researcher, he noted that older people in residential homes unlike those living in the general community were not encouraged to talk about their past. Kemp, with other professionals, developed the aid to provide a focus for staff beginning the process of enabling older people in their care to remember the past.

Reminiscence work began to flourish in the early 1980s. Older people were increasingly invited to recall their histories, and carers were encouraged to listen, value and record the rich tapestries of shared memories.

Reminiscence today

An organisation active in promoting reminiscence work in Britain today is The Age Exchange Reminiscence Centre in Blackheath, London. Established in the late 1980s, it has become one of the key centres for training, drama and general work in reminiscence. As interest in the work grew across Europe, Age Exchange became the centre for the development of the European Reminiscence Network. The Network is currently involved in developing reminiscence projects, publishing the quarterly magazine Reminiscence, carrying out research and running conferences throughout Europe.

In Britain, as in other countries, at the start of the new millennium there has been a surge of general interest in recording, preserving and broadcasting individual oral histories of social and historical memories of the twentieth century. The Oral History Society is working to extend awareness about the value of preserving knowledge of the past through oral history records. The aim of the Society’s conference in June 2001 was to bring together oral history projects from across Britain. The conference provided a national showcase for the work of community groups together with a forum to discuss common issues around oral history work.

In the USA and Australia, reminiscence work has experienced a steady increase since the 1990s. In the USA one of the organisations working to further good practice is The International Institute for Reminiscence and Life Review at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The institute has set up Internet rooms where issues about reminiscence work can be discussed online with practitioners and researchers. The university has a digital library with access to articles, book reviews and other information about reminiscence and life review. Conferences are held biannually to review current international research and general developments in reminiscence work.

Throughout the USA, the Oral History Association and the Association of Personal Historians are working to promote the recall and preservation of memories through oral history. Both organisations forge links with the business sector in order to engage professionals, from many disciplines, in supporting individuals with the process of recalling and publication of their life histories. Memories are preserved in written form, on audio and videotapes and CD-ROMs.

In Australia, the value of the recall and preservation of oral history is also attracting growing recognition. In the year 2001, to mark the country’s Centenary of Federation year, the Oral History Association organised a conference called ‘Voices of a Twentieth Century Nation’. One of the themes of the conference was to consider how memories of the past, collected and preserved through oral histories, could help forge national identity in the present. The International Society for Folk Narrative Research also held a conference in 2001, which focused on the value of life history narratives in contributing to developing an understanding of current social issues connected with race, inter-generational relationships, and cultural and language differences.

In Britain, within residential and community settings for older people, the developing focus has been on group, one-to-one life review and life-story reminiscence work. Despite some growth in the promotion of reminiscence work in care settings, its use is still far from widespread. As a result, opportunities for promoting older people’s sense of individuality are being lost when they are confronted with depersonalising group-living situations. Demands on staff time made by physical care routines, and low carer-to-client staff ratios are factors that are often attributed to the absence, or infrequency, of formal reminiscence work in care settings.

The reminiscence experience, with its emphasis on interaction between older people and their peers and carers, validates an individual’s past through social exchanges in the present. Its potential to contribute to person-centred care patterns is great, providing an enriching way to access personal past history, which in turn offers insights into individuals’ present actions and attitudes.

Increased longevity is resulting in ever-growing numbers of older people living independently in both the community and residential settings. (The Australian National Health Strategy (1991) predicted an increase of 103 percent between 1991 and 2001 in the numbers of older people aged over 85 years.) To ensure that older people continue to have quality, as well as quantity, of life there needs to be as great an emphasis on social and emotional ‘health’ as on physical wellbeing. The challenge to professional carers, voluntary workers and relatives is to consider how older people can be helped to continue to have the degree of purpose and sense of social belonging in their lives that is commensurate to their needs and wishes.

Research indicates that reminiscence work on a one-to-one basis and in small groups can contribute to the quality of life of older people: Tobin (1991) noted in his study that making the past come alive again, through reminiscence work with a sensitive listener, can be one of the main factors in continuing psychological wellbeing for older people. Individuals, Tobin believes, benefit greatly from revealing to others their past and present identities. Fielden (1990), focusing on small group reminiscence work in a sheltered housing complex, also concluded that the activity was beneficial to older people: a sense of increased wellbeing and enjoyment was observed in group members as a result of socialising with other residents.

Older people often develop an easily accessible and sharp memory focus on events from their more distant past. This heightened memory recall provides a rich source for reminiscence work. Conversely, they may find it increasingly difficult to make new memories due to short-term memory loss and/or decreasing opportunities for new experiences. Reminiscence, with its key to unlocking a past that may appear more purposeful, less lonely and inactive than the present, offers an appealing focus for rekindling the present.

Reminiscence Is Not For Everyone

It is important, while acknowledging the significance of reminiscing in many older people’s lives, to appreciate that its absence does not denote a failure to adapt positively to the process of ageing. Coleman (1991) emphasizes this point forcibly:

Reminiscence can be a sign of successful ageing and high morale, and so can the absence of reminiscence.

It is essential to have a clear appreciation and acceptance of the reasons why reminiscing is not for everyone. From observations over a 10 year period, Coleman (1986) identified differing responses to reminiscing among a group of older people living in sheltered housing schemes in London. He noted four distinct responses:

• ◆ Positive reminiscers enjoyed and valued memories recalled
• ◆ Negative reminiscers were distressed by painful memories
• ◆ Non-reminiscers did not see any value in dwelling on the past
• ◆ Non-reminiscers avoided memories of the past because of the feeling of loss that it provoked

Although there are many older people living in the community, or in residential and nursing settings, th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Tables, Figures and Handouts
• Sample Forms
• Acknowledgments
• Preface – How to use this Handbook
• Introduction
• 1 Reminiscence – Origins, Characteristics and Value
• 2 Promoting Reminiscence
• 3 Reminiscence Groups – The Planning Stage
• 4 Running and Maintaining Group Reminiscence
• 5 Reminiscence Work and the Challenge of Dementia
• 6 Reminiscence Work Across Cultures
• 7 Promoting One-to-One Reminiscence Work
• Resources
• Evaluation of Activities
• Bibliography
• Useful Organisations
• Index