Personal Memories

[PatH]

I was wondering has anyone made a Personal Memories Book for their loved one with Ad.
When my husband was admitted to his Ad unit I was aware that all everyone could see was this very confused ,agressive person. I constantly repeated myself to nurses and carers that what they were seeing was not the caring husband and father that we loved. After a couple of weeks I decided to make a little history about the life and times of my husband. I started by naming it 'Donal's Personal Memories. I told the story with words and pictures. I gave a brief of donals family and mine ,his mum dad etc. then when we got married ,had our children then grandchildren. the book was divided into sections Donals family,my family, Our family, His special friends, Then his interests and hobbies.
It took me about 6 weeks in all. after I printed it off I took it to a professional printers who laminated and bound it for me.
All the staff loved it because they had now an insight into who Donal actually was. all new staff and agency read his memories and when he went into general hospital his memories went with him.
It has been used for local training and other patients families are being encouraged to do something similar.
It was great therapy for me but it has been great as an introduction of staff to Donal.

 

[Margarita]

What a lovely idea

 

[sophia]

fantastic

That sounds very effective, all the story and memories in one place and accessible. I would like to do that too. A practical Q - did you do it by computer and scan in photos etc? Otherwise wondering what sort of paper / book you used. x

 

[Brucie]

At Jan's home there is someone who asks relatives for a potted history and memories and pictures. She puts all in a book so that all relatives and staff can see something about each resident.

It helps newcomers who are having relatives in care for the first time.

 

[PatH]

Sophia,
I did it all on computer. I practically planned the story and sequence of the photos first . That took a long time but looking through old photos was amazing. I did ir all on word document and scanned all my photos. I used ordinary multipurpose office paper to print everything off. No photo printing paper needed as all was being laminated. You need a good reserve of ink!!
Then after printing off I used polly-pockets and I set the pages back to back in the order I wanted the story. As I didnt have a laminater I asked a local printer to laminate all for me. I had intended putting all the pages in a folder but the printer finished all for me in that he punched and bound them into a beautiful folder for me.
It has been amazing for me and I feel that as Donal cant introduce himself his memory book does it for him.
Pat

 

[Áine]

Pat, what a brilliant idea! I did something similar but rather less impressive just with photos and clip frame. I did it partly for dad to have photos and memories in his wall at the nh, but also to advertise to staff that this is who he was (and still is, in some ways) and to let them know who is in the family if he starts talking about them. There's his parents, pictures of his brothers and sister, wedding photos, graduation photos, photo of me as a kid, photo of his retirement celebration etc. Might try your idea if I have some time.