With IT booming, older people are left out. Most of the elderly here are separated from their grandchildren and don't have people to share their memories with. Do you see the same problems in India? In India, there is a missing generation in America pursuing their big dreams. We have given reminiscence training in almost 400 care homes. We have done projects on memory boxes, where people put in little things that remind them of different phases of their lives. Elders were invited to donate objects from their times and places to the museums. How else have you used it? In UK, we have trained in art centres, galleries and many other places.
It is like a shot of adrenaline for them. Speak about their school days and you will see them slowly recollecting and recreating what they had experienced. Reminiscence can also be done in conversation. It was amazing recreating a different age and life in my mind.
I once heard a group of elderly women talking about how they felt when they were 17. How do you do it? I realized that older people were always seen as passive and needy. She needs to remember she has gone through all that and should know that she is living life like a long journey. A person who is 80 today must have been in school once, fallen in love and done many great things in life. Reminiscence helps you look at lives in continuity. You don't look back and see how much you have covered, but just see the sadness in the end. What is reminiscence therapy? Life is often like a marathon where you end up tired and weak at the end. Pam was on a visit to the Nightingale's Center for Ageing and Alzheimer's in Bangalore to train care-givers on reminiscence work. All of us do it unknowingly, says director, European Reminiscence Network, Pam Schweitzer. Reminiscence therapy is one such mode to bring back special moments and memories of people so that they start realizing their identity and take pride in themselves. As it poses a grave threat to the ageing population world over, care-givers are exploring different options to tackle it. BANGALORE: Dementia is not all about forgetting, it is also about reminiscing what is left from the past.
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