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Advantages for beneficiaries
In the following part we’ll try to show some of the arguments
that speak in favor of this technique:
1. First of all, reminiscence encourages social interactions
by helping develop new social relationships, thus reducing,
for example, the isolation of dementia suffering individuals
and encouraging them to communicate with other individuals suffering
from the same disease. Talking about the past is a way of giving
new meaning to the present. People participating in reminiscence
stimulating meetings share personal experiences and memories
in their own way, without being forced to or critiqued about
it. As participants start knowing and trusting one another,
each individual will approach more personal memories and subjects
from his/her own life. By sharing (and listening to) highly
emotional, positive and negative, experiences, each participant
learns to accept the others and thus helps consolidate new social
relationships. Each and every participant in a reminiscence
group should be seen (and should feel like) as having a valuable
potential of becoming a useful resource or stimulation for helping
and training others, being at the same time a beneficiary of
the actions and stimulation of other participants. So, each
participant gets to be a provider and a receiver at the same
time.
2. Reminiscence activities help value each individual. Modern
society casts out elderly people and makes them feel left outside.
People suffering from dementia are even less valorized, this
because, in early stages of the disease, they undergo a process
of self-isolation in order to hide their deficiencies. Through
reminiscence techniques we try to challenge them to start talking
about their past, show them that what they have to say is interesting
and help, thus, dementia affected people to regain self esteem
and confidence.
3. Reminiscence activities help the „life review” process.
As a person grows into age, he/ she starts living more in the
past than in the present and enjoys talking about past experiences.
Through reminiscence stimulation we can help develop the „life
review” process and beneficiaries can leave the group with a
feeling of content and fulfillment, as they have managed to
share (even if not very precise) certain very important events
of their lives that have a substantial emotional charge for
them.
4. Reminiscence activities build up connections and bridges
between the past, the present and the future. Revealing the
past of an individual, just as it comes out following reminiscence
stimulation techniques, helps gain a better understanding on
certain present conducts and, at the same time, makes us better
understand future evolutions of various patients.
5.Reminiscence techniques reduce the distance between caretaker
and the dementia affected individual, as it has shown to be
an effective instrument for improving communication and empathic
communication. Almost every social institution, including the
family, attributes a certain role to every individual, as well
as specific functional task. In hospitals, recovery or residential
centers, the staff is always invested with more power than the
beneficiaries. No matter if we talk about family or care institutions,
the situation of dementia affected people is quite the same:
as the individual goes through the initial stages of dementia,
he/she realizes that he/she is less and less involved in various
minimal daily activities and is every day less required to do
anything. By means of reminiscence activities, dementia affected
patients, as well as their formal or informal attendants, have
the chance to rebuild are regain meaning for their attributions
and capacities as normal individuals, who should be accepted
just as they are, with their abilities and disabilities. Group
sessions can lead people into starting to trust one another
and be less concerned about position, power or control, social
usage that isn’t part of the reminiscence activities.
6. Reminiscence activities help better evaluate a dementia-affected
patient and also bring up necessary information for setting
up an individualized care plan. Considering dementia affected
person only as he/she is today, in the present, is just like
looking at only a corner of a picture, instead of the whole
album. It just isn’t fair and right to appreciate only present
capacities, as this doesn’t show the whole picture, doesn’t
give a grasp on what that individual has been, done, managed
to do in life, liked to do, etc. Personal history can offer
valuable information about what that individual is still able
to do or what could interest him/her, thus giving that person
a second chance. Reminiscence activities help us find out more
about the personal history of the participants, information
that can be extremely useful for the individual care program.
It is even vital to include these in the individualized care
program, as past and also present information about the individual
can lead to better and more complex results of the care process.
7. Reminiscence activities can lead to a change in the group’s
hierarchy. It is said that people who lived certain events that
entered history are the best possible history teachers. Elderly
people represent valuable information resources about past historical
events and, if encouraged and challenged, are generally willing
and glad to share what they know and have experienced about
those past events. Instead of being merely passive employees
that attend dementia affected people, or just perform activities
for them or in their places, we can –by means of reminiscence
stimulation techniques- give these people the chance to be themselves
in the highlights, become leading actors or play the paper of
a teacher that offers valuable information. That is, allowing
them to be in control. The others, participants and monitors,
become, in a way, pupils that have many things to learn form
their „teachers”. It is a method that simultaneously connects
the dementia-affected person to long past ages and also builds
a bridge between generations.
8. By means of reminiscence activities, the social and cultural
heritage can also be preserved. Each time a person dies, a part
of the cultural heritage of the nation dies with it. Sometimes
we may have lost a valuable book, a best seller. If we learn
to carefully listen to histories of the past, if we educate
ourselves to remember and respect the past, we’ll them probably
be able to turn the past into present and save at least a small
part of the individual cultural heritage. Reminiscence techniques
help record and preserve, on one hand, memories of ordinary
people about their own lives, but also, in the other hand, we
have the chance to keep and disseminate these items of cultural
heritage.
9. By using reminiscence stimulation techniques on dementia
suffering people we can help attract them into a pleasant, relaxing
activity, with also brings them a great deal of satisfaction.
By this we don’t mean that all reminiscence activities refer
to positive or enjoyable events. There are memories of unpleasant,
disturbing events, bearing a lot of negative emotional tension,
which people don’t want to remember as it makes them go through
a traumatizing experience all over again. Nevertheless, most
beneficiaries of reminiscence stimulation techniques experience
a strong satisfaction.
10. Through reminiscence stimulation techniques at dementia-affected
patients, these can be attracted into a pleasant, relaxing and
satisfying activity. It is obvious that not all memories brought
back through reminiscence activities are pleasant or bear a
positive emotional charge. There are memories that can bring
up a strong negative emotional reaction or patients may refuse
to remember certain traumatizing experiences. Nevertheless,
most beneficiaries of reminiscence stimulation techniques experience
a high sense of satisfaction and content when they are given
the possibility to talk about things that happened a longtime
ago. This is hw these people can go back in time and live past
experiences all over again. It is in the benefit of the dementia
affected individuals to focus on what they can do / talk about
today, in the present, instead of bewailing what they cannot
do or how unfortunate they are to be in such a condition. Talking
about their lives, getting to build up social connections are
important steps towards making these people feel (and be) useful,
active and more connected to the present.
As a conclusion, we can argue that the benefits of reminiscence
stimulation techniques like the ones mentioned above cannot
be considered merely as simple reactions brought upon by a stimulus.
It is a complex system of feedbacks and interactions that includes
carefully choosing and organizing certain activities, creating
the opportunity and proper context for social interactions and
communication between these very special individuals that are
the ones affected by dementia, on the basis of sharing to one
another and with the group some personal experiences and memories.
These, on their turn, play the important part of generating
interest and attention and involving other participants. This
whole system of stimuli, feedbacks and communication networks
is based on mutual respect, understanding, tolerance and an
open minded attitude towards dementia affected people.
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