My name is Rachel Davies and I’m the Activity Coordinator at the brand new Dementia & Residential Home, Oakview Lodge in Welwyn Garden City.
Oakview Lodge Care Home is one of Country Court Care's purpose-built homes, built on the site of the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the heart of rural Hertfordshire.
As the home, the residents and I were all new, I wanted to begin with a project that would help us all to settle in. I like to reminisce with older people and have a genuine interest in their lives ( perhaps I am just plain nosey). Anyway, I used this as my starting point and began a project making these reminiscing books to help me engage with residents and to get to know them.
We had a lovely time making the books, I added questions to some of the pages and residents told me it brought back so many memories of the holidays they had been on and the games they used to play at school lunch times.
The Reminiscence Scrap Books Project has given residents more confidence, they smile more and appear to have a greater sense of self worth.
Reminiscing with individuals or in a small group is one of my favourite activities, I love to learn about their lives before they came to live at Oakview Lodge.