The Times newspaper

Melanie Reid of the Times - now writes Spinal Column in the Times on Saturday Magazine - wrote

"...Anybody who has spent time with people living with dementia knows that their long-term memory can remain intact for years after short-term recall has disintegrated. A person who has no idea what they ate for breakfast that morning may – if prompted – be able to describe in detail the menu on the morning after their marriage 50 years earlier", says Sarah Reed, founder of Many Happy Returns, which produces packs of photographic cards with images from the 1940s (a 1950s set is in production) to prompt conversation in people with dementia.

It is tempting to rationalise this as a flight into the happy past from an intolerable present, but in fact the part of the brain where new memories are stored is affected earlier in dementia than where memories of long ago reside. Recollection of music and song – which is also stored differently – can remain unimpaired for longer still.

"Especially vivid are images from what David Rubin, professor of psychology at Duke University in North Carolina has termed the ‘reminiscence bump’ – the period between the ages 10 and 25" says Reed. "Various theories have been advanced as to why this should be so: our autobiographical memory storage systems are more efficient at that age; our sense of self is being formed; we have many experiences for the first time. Whatever the reason, this is the period of our lives where the brightest and most focussed pictures lie."

“Most of the world of older people is their past. When I visited my mother, who had dementia for 10 years, I would see families struggling for conversation with the people they love. They’d say ‘Steve has got into the school football team’ or ‘We’re off to Torquay for the weekend’. This would mean almost nothing to the person with dementia. But if they’d asked ‘What was your best holiday?’ they’d have got a response, especially if they had a visual trigger and some helpful conversational prompts.”

Reed launched the Many Happy Returns cards in 2008 after conducting research with 120 older people. “The same themes kept coming up, mostly to do with the domestic environment: shopping, rationing, smoking, playing games, washday and for the men, watching their father shave.”

The cards, each of which comes with a brief explanation for the uninitiated, are intended as a jumping off point for conversation and are currently used in around 800 care homes. “A picture of somebody shopping might lead the older person to remember that she walked to the high street every day because she had no fridge to store fresh food, that everything was sold by weight and put in paper bags and that there were no supermarkets.”

Prompts like photographs help release memories long locked away, says Julie Heathcote, a trainer specialising in reminiscence work for the Alzheimer’s Society. “Often, just asking a question is not enough. You need something visual, audio or tactile. I have seen so many surprising moments when there has been recognition and response from someone with dementia where the family and carers expected nothing."