It’s likely that one of the reasons you are a health care professional is because you want to help people. You signed up and trained to provide your expertise so others can live their best lives. You feel good about what you do and know your work matters.
One of the ways to continue that purpose is to build stronger connection with the people you serve. It can be easy in the day-to-day challenges to lose sight of the point of your effort, but by establishing relationships with your clients you will renew in your deepest sense of satisfaction.
Here we deliver information on how to ask questions and trigger memories—and the benefits of shared life stories.
Reminiscence Therapy Benefits
Reminiscence Therapy BenefitsMost people enjoy talking about themselves, and for some seniors their past is even more solid than newer, recent memories. Termed Reminiscence Therapy (RT) or life review, you don’t need to be a therapist to encourage life storytelling with your clients.
As a “people person,” you recognize the nature of your working relationship with your clients. As your work progresses, though, you’ll feel when the time is right to allow for more time to ask more questions to illicit life storytelling.
There is brain science at work during RT, too. Per Good Therapy, “RT encourages discussion of memories that have been stored away. It helps stimulate those memories through sensory organs. This causes the brain to react differently than usual. Those reactions can impact emotions or behavior. Studies have shown that RT can help older adults become more engaged.”
By evoking your clients to talk about their past, you provide more holistic care that honors both the patient and your role as a caregiver. Whether working with someone dealing with dementia or other conditions, seniors can see other benefits of life review, including improved mood or behavior, higher confidence, and reduced depression.
20 Memory Prompt Questions
These 20 questions are a starting point to guide you in conversation. The most important part is to remain invested and pay attention. Consider taking notes that you can refer to for future topics, and let the answers guide you to other questions naturally.
The most rewarding experience for you and the client can happen when your curiosity is heightened and YOU want to know more!
- Where and when were you born?
- What is your most vivid childhood memory?
- Describe the place where you lived (i.e., the community) as a child.
- Who were the most important people to you as a child?
- Who was your best friend, and why?
- Describe the kinds of games you played.
- Where were your favorite places to go when you were a child? Why?
- Describe your favorite childhood meal.
- What was your favorite subject in school? Why?
- What chores did you do as a child?
- Did you have a pet as a child?
- What was your special talent?
- Did you memorize anything like a poem for school?
- Who was your favorite teacher, and why?
- Describe one of those times you feel you succeeded in something.
- Describe the members of your family.
- What was your role in the family? (Were you the brain? Were you the athlete?)
- Describe a time you encountered danger as a child but lived to tell the tale.
- When did you realize you had truly become an adult?
- Describe a courageous moment when you took a big leap.
Other Reminiscing Tools
In addition to questions, other tools can yield memories, too. Pay attention to the photos on display in the home and ask about the people in the images. Who are they and how are they related to your client? Do the photos document an important event or milestone? Let one question lead to another.
Our senses are another strong memory trigger. Particular scents, sounds, or the touch of certain things can call up bits of memory that provoke more stories. Consider playing favorite music the client recalls or showing images of tools he or she might have used for work. Are there other objects on display in the home that are attached to stories?
Film clips from the time period of a person’s life are topics to start the flow of memories. Play video clips from major historical events and ask your client what he or she remembers of this significant time in history.
Stay Connected to Your Purpose
Your role as a health care provider is impactful for your client and the family as well. But at the core of your role, you are present in a person’s life at a vulnerably human moment. We will all have times we need the support of others due to illness or an ongoing condition. When that happens, all any of us wants is to be heard and treated with dignity. Taking time to enrich the relationships with your clients through reminiscing will keep you grounded in the importance of what you do.
But even more profound, perhaps, will be the life lessons and insights you glean from hearing the life stories of others.
Bibliography:
https://www.homehealthcompanions.com/caregivers-companions https://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/types/reminiscence-therapy