Agora Association - First reminiscence center in Romania

	What reminiscence is and how to run a reminiscence group Coordonating reminiscence sessions Confidentiality and planning reminiscence sessions Evaluating reminiscence sessions Advantages for beneficiaries Advantages for take-carers Activities Examples of themes

	Confidentiality Confidentiality is very important within reminiscence activities. Anybody participating in a reminiscence group wishes to have the guarantee that the personal memories talked about in front of the audience will be dealt with respect and won�t be made public. Some groups establish from the beginning a set of conduct rules, which include, among others, a mutual commitment of confidentiality and respect. Confidentiality must be a common ground for the members of the reminiscence group, as well as the group monitor. However, some types of reminiscence activities like drawing, writing various materials, sketches, tapes or other recorded supplies imply making certain personal memories public, but this may only happen with the preliminary acceptance of each and every participant. Monitors of such groups must ensure that materials brought into a reminiscence group have the previous agreement of the owners before including these in publications or films. Some people do not wish to see their personal memories made public, others are delighted to share their life experience with other people.

	Planning reminiscence sessions It is of high importance for the success of the reminiscence activities that the participants before each meeting should know the topics of each session. Sometimes it is useful to announce the topics for the next 5 or 10 sessions, or the themes to be discussed can be announced from one session to another. This gives participants the opportunity to prepare and think thoroughly about what to discuss at the next session; this is actually a way of starting the reminiscence process at the very home of the participants. They will feel encouraged and challenged to look for relevant objects and photos, in order to better depict and explain what they intend to talk about during the next meeting. A very convenient method for choosing themes of future reminiscence sessions is trying to update memories in a chronological order; this presentation will be based on this chronological approach. Members of the group can be asked by the monitor to make suggestions about future topics to be talked about, thus creating the possibility of useful ideas coming out for the next sessions. Some groups may apply this method for more than one sessions .The topics may also be chosen considering certain connections with present activities (for example, going nowadays to spas may be related to a similar activity during childhood).. The theme also is connected to seasons, anniversaries, festivals, special occasions, national personalities, etc. It is very important to visibly mark the beginning and the end of each session, in order to remind participants the topics to be talked about, the start and the end of each session. Each meeting should be concluded by a summary of the activities, made by the monitor. He has to allow each participant to express his/her feelings and ideas about the session that has come to an end and also the next one. Record of each reminiscence session should include: - Discussed topics - Activities opening the session - Main activities - Activities at the end of the reminiscence session - Used resources - Number of participants - Involvement level of every participant - Other observations and comments - Name of the group monitor and whether there was a second assistant - Date of the meeting - Duration
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