An Oxfordshire care home is calling on members of the community to dig out and donate old-fashioned and nostalgic household items to help their residents living with dementia.
Staff at Marston Court in Marston, managed by The Orders of St John Care Trust (OSJCT), have set up reminiscence sessions and created a memory box to engage the residents at the home and help recall past memories.
Diane Davidson, Care Leader at Marston Court chose health care as the first subject for the reminiscence session and put together a brief history of the NHS, which included interesting articles on healthcare from the 1940’s onwards.
She sourced the items for the memory box from charity shops, market stalls and even people’s sheds and garages. They include an old-fashioned terry cotton nappy and pin, a baby’s feeding bottle, NHS glasses and old tins of ointment and medicinal cures.
“As a member of the ‘Dementia Champion Team’ in Oxfordshire, my role is to promote dementia care within the home and to enrich the lives of the people at Marston Court. By getting the group actively involved in the sessions we hope that it will help trigger the resident’s memories and encourage discussions within the group”, said Diane.
Paul Lucas, Activities Co-ordinator at Marston Court, who helped manage the sessions, said: “The response from the residents has been fantastic. The smells of the old ointments and medicines helped the residents to remember things from the past and the group had great fun trying to remember how to fold the nappy, as each person had a different way of doing it.”
“Some of our resident’s relatives have contributed items already – I’ve had hearing aids and even a set of false teeth donated. We are hoping to get even more items so that we can create more memory boxes to swap with other care homes in the region!” concluded Diane.
People interested in donating items should contact Diane or Paul on 01865 241526 or activities.marstoncourt@osjctoxon.co.uk
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Issued on behalf of The Orders of St John Care Trust by Lava. For further information contact Louise or Steph at Lava on 01522 842 800 / louise@lavapr.co.uk or steph@lavapr.co.uk
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