Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today

Pam Schweitzer became fascinated by reminiscence and oral history after many years working in Theatre in Education and Educational Drama. In 1983, she founded Age Exchange Theatre Trust, the first full-time professional theatre company to specialise in reminiscence theatre. For the last decade she has been actively developing reminiscence projects for people with dementia and their carers. In 2000, she was awarded an MBE for services to Reminiscence and she continues to direct the European Reminiscence Network, lecturing, directing and training in reminiscence and related fields. Errollyn Bruce is a lecturer in Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford. In 1997, after joining Bradford Dementia Group she met Pam Schweitzer and joined the Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today project as an evaluator. The experience of bringing ideas together from the fields of reminiscence and person-centred dementia care fascinated her and fuelled an enduring interest in working with life histories in dementia care.

This is an exceptionally important book that celebrates the interdependency of human beings, the virtues of the education of carers and the positive treatment of people with dementia... In describing in exquisite and profound, but necessary, detail how to create and re-create a wonderfully sensitive approach to caring for people with dementia, the authors have conveyed some of the most important research findings of the past twenty years in the context of a programme to support the strengths and well-being of people with dementia. At the same time, the programme they describe serves to educate carers to support and revel in demonstrations of their loved ones' strengths... This is a book that can add greatly to the lives of all concerned and I recommend it highly.

• Foreword by Faith Gibson, Emeritus professor of Social Work, University of Ulster. Preface by Bob Woods, Professor of Clinical Psychology of Older People, University of Wales Bangor. Introduction. 1.Dementia and Reminiscence: Current Thinking. 2. Reminiscence in Dementia Care. 3. Reminiscence Skills and Methods.4. Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today: A Programme and an Approach. 5. Organising a Reminiscence Project. 6. Training for the Project Team and Family Carers. 7. Reminiscence Sessions: Retracing the Life Course. 8. Final Comments and Future Hopes. Appendix : Useful Documents. References. Index.