ARU Research Report 2019

The Up Project 21 Consequently, interactions appeared to be positive, individual-affirming opportunities, elevating older adults from their generic ‘resident’, older person, or person-with-dementia status, into territory where they were recognised and valued as unique and interesting individuals. Appreciation of the unique talents and experiences of the older adults was expressed by the children: ‘I learnt that, if they only just have dementia it doesn’t mean that they don’t have any talent, Mary is a really good singer, I feel like she’s an opera singer.’ (Child 2) ‘There was a man there, he was, I think it was Frank, he was in the army, we were colouring in tanks, and he kept on saying he used to be in one of them. ‘ (Child 1) The interactions with the children also allowed the older adults to express the strengths and abilities which they still possess, despite their dementia diagnosis. These could then be exploited for the benefit of the older adult and the children, for example with reading, teaching and knowledge transfer between the generations: ‘It makes it better, no and his brain is gone, I know that, but he can still, you wouldn’t believe it, he can still read, so if the children come up here, perhaps show him something in books or something, because I like to give him books when I come up here and I think it helps to work the, yeah I definitely do’ (Relative) New perspectives regarding the older adults were not just limited to the children. Staff also relayed how the interactions allowed them to see a different side to the older adults they cared for on a daily basis: ‘I think it would be beneficial purely because seeing how the residents here interact with the children and seeing them in a completely different light to what they are on a day-to-day basis’ (Care home staff) As well as providing the opportunity for the older adults’ unique personal identities and skills to emerge, the interactions also enabled the older adults to express their more innate traits for nurturing and supporting others, which there was limited opportunity to exercise within the normal care home environment. To those observing the interactions, these were sometimes viewed as replications of family roles the older adults may have fulfilled at some stage in their lives: ‘The ladies get their motherly instinct back and just the way they talk to the children, they do drawing with them, colouring, all sorts’ (Care home staff) ‘They were helping them, and they were treating them like their little grandchildren and things like that, and they were really patient with them. Lots of them, wherever they were there was a child next to someone else and they were helping them and they were very patient with them.’ (Care home staff) The interactions therefore provided a unique opportunity for the re-humanisation of institutionalised older adults with dementia, provoking conditions which allowed both children and carers to see past their cognitive or physical impairments, and instead towards the distinct personalities, talents and latent caring traits which would emerge into the foreground during these interactions.