Through our House of Memories dementia awareness programme we aim to show people how to deliver a positive quality of life experience for people living with dementia.
There are thought to be more than 800,000 people in the UK living with dementia, each person with their own individual story, background, relationships, and care requirements.
As part of our memory suitcase loan service you can borrow a suitcase filled with images and objects to help you deliver a reminiscence session with someone living with dementia. By recognising that each person has an individual story we felt it was vitally important to offer a range of suitcases to reflect different experiences and lives lived.
Working on the Pride and Prejudice project I did a lot of reminiscence work with older LGBT people, hearing their fantastic stories and finding out what life was like in the city for them. I realised how important it was for there to be a dedicated LGBT memory suitcase that the community could loan.
In consultation with older LGBT people, we began to gather objects for the suitcase that would be used in reminiscence work with LGBT people living with dementia. The suitcase contains flyers from early pride festivals, marches and clubs, as well as photographs of Liverpool’s LGBT venues from the 1950s onwards, and much more.
Like our other suitcases, we hope it proves stimulating and rewarding for those LGBT people living with dementia and they are able experience access memories and reminisce.
To hire a suitcase please call us on 0151 478 4432 or email learning@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk.