World War 2 gas mask and anti-gas ointment

Reminiscence therapy is an important part of dementia care. Many deep-seated memories have a lot of emotion attached to them, objects and images can help to retrieve these memories.  Reminiscence objects facilitate communication and can help people feel more socially integrated. The nature of dementia often means it’s easier for people to recall older memories than quickly bringing to mind day-to-day events.

I recently had the opportunity to join Jon Lale from ForgetMeNotBook.com to take some still life photographs of a collection of reminiscence and memory objects used by the care home company MHA to trigger memories and generate discussions with their residents. MHA had a mini museum of fascinating everyday objects from the last century. During the shoot Jon and I had a lot of “Do you remember this?” moments. The fascinating reminiscence objects in this ‘mini-museum’ included gas masks, toys and games, magazines, household objects, and other memorabilia. Here are just a few of the pictures. The images will allow more people to see the objects and reduce demand for some of the more delicate items in the collection. The pictures will be used uploaded to iPads and incorporated into memory games for the care home residents and visitors.

Cigarette card book from the 1930s