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Jean 14th Jun 2020 Activities Coordinator

I started a new multi sensory reminiscence activity called 'Memory Club'. It is a group activity where we talk about a particular topic, I show them pictures, or related items. We listen to related songs/music , have something to eat and show a short you tube clip. The activity that lasts for approx 2 hours, bearing in mind we have a break with a cup of tea and something to eat, has gone down very well with the residents. I used the Queens official birthday and the trooping of the colours as a topic and I am now preparing a session about the Post Office & stamps. We will have a short chat about the history of the post office and stamps. Did anyone in the group ever collect stamps? It is going to be amazing reminiscing about the excitement of receiving a parcel in the post, a long awaited letter from distant family member/loved one. The anxiety of having to wait for exam results that had been put in the post etc. I will have them opening envelopes that have cards in them: Birthday, Get Well, Your New Home, New Baby etc. Do you remember the days when you bought your Christmas cards and sat down with a cup of tea, the address book and a list of names of people you were sending cards to? I think that as long as I can find topics that my residents can relate to that this is going to continue to be a successful activity.

Susan 14th Jun 2020 Activity Director

Hi Jean
What a lovely idea
Your tips are great too
Thank you for sharing

Talita 15th Jun 2020

Love this idea Jean, I'm sure your residents are going to enjoy it and there are so many wonderful topics to reminise about.

Natalie 16th Jun 2020 Activities Coordinator

A brilliant idea, lovely topics, the post office one will be particularly good for my residents as two uses to work for the post office and have had some chats about how it all changed while working there, for instance when postcodes got introduced and from manually sorting to machine sorting.
I am very lucky that my local museum have a reminiscence scheme and have artifacts that we can hold and talk about before lockdown we did one around the 1950s and got them to guess what the items where and some items have a local connection too which is amazing. When I am back at work I will try and get a photo of the box, not sure if you have a museum local to you but they might have an educational program that can add to your group.

Jean 17th Jun 2020 Activities Coordinator

Thanks Natalie, I am going to try the library in a town near here and see what they have.
It turned out that one of my ladies met her late husband through a pen pal scheme.
Another lady remembered going to the post office every week to collect some money 'without that trip to the post office I would have not been able to feed my children' she recalled.
They all recalled lessons at school where they were taught the format of a letter etc.
We spoke about writing to a family member and telling them we were expecting a new baby, then I gave them a parcel to open that contained a new babies knitted jacket, bootees, bonnet and mittens. It was quite an emotional but enjoyable session.

Susan 17th Jun 2020 Activity Director

Hi Jean
Thanks so much for sharing this information

Wendy 13th Jun 2023

Thank you for sharing, this is a great activity to try.

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