Creative Journeys Report 2019

Creative Journeys 19 Box 1: Age Exchange at Vaudeville Care Home Age Exchange Age Exchange has been using reminiscence arts with older people for 30 years to address loneliness and social isolation and improve well-being in care homes and the community. Reminiscence arts is the creative exploration of memories that brings to life our stories and experiences, our shared heritage, or even the history of our shared spaces. The work can be a narrative linear, or when working with people with memory difficulties, a memory that is recalled by an action. Age Exchange creates tailor made packages to suit both the residents and the setting in terms of needs and preferences. In Vaudeville Care Home, the Age Exchange programme ran for ten consecutive weeks at 10:00-12:00 on Wednesdays, with two additional longer sessions – one which included one-to-one filming with the residents and another as an end of programme celebration. Eight residents in total took part, supported by the activities coordinator throughout. The initial plan had been to create a piece of theatre, however given the frailty and physical/ cognitive impairments of some of the residents taking part, they instead worked together to create a film of the residents telling their stories. The arrival of the residents to the sessions was staggered. On some weeks they would be brought by carers who would then leave, but when the care home was short-staffed, the activities coordinator brought the residents one-by-one, meaning sessions frequently started later than planned (at around 10:30). The activities coordinator attended all of the sessions except one (when he was unable to attend and another staff member joined instead). No other staff members attended the sessions, though some did attend the film viewing at the end of the programme. A typical session involved various elements such as the facilitators asking everyone how they were that day, throwing a beach ball around the group to ‘warm up’ (usually involving much laughter), followed by the introduction of an object/artefact from the era of the residents to spark conversation and story-telling. For example, facilitators produced a string bag and asked ‘What shopping would you have put in this?’, or a box brownie camera and asked ‘What photo do you not have which you wish you did?’, or passed round sparkly dancing shoes and asked ‘When and where may you have worn these?’ Other activities included singing old songs (e.g. Blue Suede Shoes or Underneath the Arches), and acting out to the group what their first job was while everyone else guessed. After the programme ended, Age Exchange held a viewing of the film of residents telling their stories. Around 20 people came, including a number of other residents who didn’t take part in the activity, along with a few staff members and the care manager, although she was called away before the film started. One family member (a daughter of one of the participating residents) also attended.