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This week, Shaaron Caratella, Care Home Manager at Queens Court Care Home and I are presented the latest results of our Collected Short Stories project.

Date: 1 November 2010

Foreign staff help improve the quality of life in care homes by exploring residents’ pasts.

Life stories of older people living in a care home in Wimbledon have been collected to help foreign care workers better understand the residents and their cultural heritage.

The older people’s life stories are being gathered as part of the ‘Collected Short Stories’ project at Queen’s Court Care Home in Wimbledon, where 38 of the 55 staff come from outside the EU. The findings of this research project will be released ahead of Remembrance Day next week.

The project’s headline finding that sharing people’s life stories and encouraging meaningful one to one conversations significantly improves the staff and residents’ quality of life, is being presented at the UK Dementia Conference on 9th-11th November.

In the project, care home staff spent time in conversation with residents and their families collecting their stories and old photographs into an autobiographical album. This activity had a two-pronged effect: families and residents felt better understood and foreign carers increased their knowledge of the residents’ British history and culture.

Many Happy Returns founder and Kensington resident Sarah Reed created the project based on findings that her Chatterbox flashcards of British life in the 1940s and 1950s prompt older people’s memories and help carers understand more about their lives.

Studies have shown that reminiscence activities have significant positive therapeutic effects for older people and those living with dementia, and perhaps more surprisingly, for staff and families as well. The ‘Collected Short Stories’ project was evaluated from start to finish, with the results filmed and available on YouTube. Staff, residents and families all said that life story albums had positively influenced the care and community in the home, helping residents with their transition between their own home and a Care Home.

Speaking about the project, founder of Many Happy Returns Sarah Reed said: “When people know each other better they care more.

“Sharing stories and photographs from the past gives carers a vital insight into who residents once were, giving them a better understanding of who they are now.”

Care home manager at Queen’s Court Care Home Shaaron Caratella said:

“We have found that the project enabled foreign staff to establish a genuine bond with their residents, leaving them with greater motivation and communication skills.”

ENDS/

Note to editors:

Many Happy Returns is a social enterprise founded by Sarah Reed, it reconnects the generations by helping older people share memories with others. The CHATTERBOX flashcard games were used as part of the ‘Collected Short Stories’ project. The 1950s edition of the game has been released in time for Christmas to bring families together with older friends and relatives over the festive period. http://www.manyhappyreturns.org

See YouTube video of the project: http://www.youtube.com/user/manyhappyreturnsltd#p/a/u/1/6tzPh_ztUqw

The Wimbledon care home is one of thousands of care homes in the UK relying on migrant workers, in the capital an estimated 60 percent of London care workers are non-EU migrants.

Sources:

‘Crisis in care homes as new staffing rules loom’ (The Times, March 31 2010) - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7081849.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084

Link to report on reminiscing - http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/ViewAwardPage.aspx?AwardId=849

For interview, or further information please contact: Holly Sutton 02073944311 / 07966280542 (out of hours)