Place memory and dementia: Findings from participatory film-making in long-term social care

Andrea Capstick; Katherine Ludwin

doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.05.012

Place memory and dementia: Findings from participatory film-making in long-term social care

Health Place. 2015 Jul:34:157-63. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.05.012. Epub 2015 Jun 2.

Authors

Andrea Capstick¹, Katherine Ludwin²

Affiliations

¹ School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK. Electronic address: a.j.capstick@bradford.ac.uk.
² School of Health Studies, University of Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, UK.

PMID: 26046299
DOI: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2015.05.012

Abstract

A participatory film-making study carried out in long-term social care with 10 people with Alzheimer-type dementia found that places the participants had known early in life were spontaneously foregrounded. Participants' memories of such places were well-preserved, particularly when photo-elicitation techniques, using visual images as prompts, were employed. Consistent with previous work on the 'reminiscence bump' in dementia, the foregrounded memories belonged in all cases to the period of life between approximately 5 and 30 years. Frequently the remembered places were connected with major life events which continued to have a strong emotional component. The continuing significance of place in the context of long-term dementia care is considered from a psychogeographical perspective.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Autobiography; Psychogeography; Residential care; Video.

MeSH terms

Age Factors
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Autobiographies as Topic
Dementia / psychology*
Emotions
Female
Humans
Long-Term Care*
Male
Mental Recall*
Motion Pictures*
Spatial Memory*