Reminiscence Project in Dementia Care
About Project
The Reminiscence Project was initiated in February 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic by Associate Professor Carol Ma, Head of Gerontology, SUSS, with Ms. Patricia Lee, Senior Oral History Specialist, National Archives of Singapore (NAS) and Ms. Eunice Tan, Manager, Dementia Singapore (DSG), Family of Wisdom (Bendemeer).
Objectives of the project :
• Using adaptive oral history interviews to promote well-being to DSG’s clients
• Empower the public to see the world from the DSG’s clients lenses
• For fun, brings cheer. Help DSG’s clients recollect the things they could do in the past, and sometimes in the present!
• Help bridge and deepen relationships between DSG’s clients and their caregivers
• Help turn negative experiences to positive ones
• Put closure
• For family’s legacy
How ?
Adapting the oral history methodology in collecting stories of our clients through :
Person-centric approach. Clients and their caregivers choose the topics and themes for the interviews
Adopts a life course, biographical and thematic approach. Interviews were conducted with the help of the caregiver(s) over 7 sessions.
Using photographs, documents and objects to help trigger memories during interviews
co-create interview questions with caregivers
Interviews were recorded (both audio and video)
Synopses were written and interviews transcribed
Copies of the interviews were given to the family as part of preserving the family legacy
Caregivers were interviewed to give feedbacks of the project
Over time, two clients dropped out, due to their deteriorating cognition.
In the end, we were left with 8 clients and their families who participated in the oral narrative interviews and completed sometime in July 2022. Unfortunately, one of eight clients – Mr Richard Ee passed away on 25-July this year due to illness.
The 8 participating clients and families were :
Name of Client Name of Caregiver
1. Mr Thomas Ong (84 years) – attends Friday morning English speaking group Michelle Ong (daughter)
2. Mdm Alice Neo (94 years) – attends Monday and Friday morning English speaking group Sharon Lam (daughter)
3. Mdm Tan Ah Yong (80 years) – attends Wednesday afternoon Mandarin speaking group Leong Kit Yee (daughter)
4. Mr Sim Thoon Hin (86 years) – attends Monday morning English speaking group Jane Tan (wife)
5. Mdm Chua Siew Hiang (91 years) – attends Monday afternoon Hokkien / Teochew speaking group Grace Low and Low Liang Ching (daughters)
6. Mr Mak Kok Hee (85 years) – attends Monday morning English speaking group and Thursday afternoon one-to-one session Mabel Mak (daughter)
7. Mrs Mak-Cheng Lee Lee (85 years) – attends Monday and Friday morning English speaking group, and Thursday afternoon one-to-one session Mabel Mak (daughter)
8. Late Mr Richard Ee (74 years) – attended Friday morning English speaking group Emily Tan (wife)
Most of these clients were selected due to their earlier participation in a programme called “Take Off Your Cap” conducted by Patricia and Arthur from Reminisce Connect at Family of Wisdom. Subsequently, SUSS-NAS-DSG also conducted a group reminiscence project to prepare our clients for the one-to-one home based reminiscence oral history project.
This community engaged project was unique as it was a tripartite partnership among SUSS, NAS and DSG. DSG staff helped with communicating with the clients and caregivers and any issues about the interview were discussed with the center manager. Also, we were able to adapt the NAS oral history methodology in designing and documenting the one-to-one reminiscence oral narrative interviews. At end of the interviews, the participating families were encouraged to deposit their interviews with the NAS and also to use the interviews as a form of reminiscence with their loved ones. SUSS faculty member, alumni and students were involved in interviewing, supporting with the logistics arrangement and project evaluation. This project inspired the SUSS gerontology programme to develop a course on Reminiscence in Aged care under the Minor in Applied Ageing Studies programme.
The 10-October-2022 marks the completion of the entire project, and as a celebration, we have decided to hold a party using SUSS premise. We will show a trailer – comprising of all the interviewees video shots, as well as a concise video of each participating client’s interviews. Each family will receive their own videos as a gift on that day.
We have also done a calendar 2023 to distribute to the participating families.
During lunch, we have invited Vernon Cornelius, one of the lead singers from a popular local band in the 60s called Quests, to perform a few songs for us.
List of the Project Team members:
Singapore University of Social Sciences
Carol Ma Hok Ka, Associate Professor and Head of Gerontology Programme
Amy Lim Chuey Yeng, Alumnus of Gerontology Programme (Cohort 9)
Winnie Koh Ah Nah , Alumnus of Gerontology Programme (Cohort 9)
Lau Tat Chuan, Alumnus of Gerontology Programme (Cohort 10)
Jeffery Wang Wai Long, Student of Gerontology Programme (Cohort 10)
Nana Jusuf, Administrative Staff of Gerontology Programme
National Archives of Singapore
Patricia Lee Poh Keng , Senior Specialist (Oral History Centre)
Jesley Chua Chee Huan , Assistant Director (Oral History Centre)
Irene Lim Lei Lian, Principal Archivist (Registrar's Office)
Dementia Singapore
Eunice Tan, Manager (Family of Wisdom, Bendemeer), Dementia Singapore & Alumnus of Gerontology Programme (Cohort 1)
Vue Networks Pte Ltd
Jonathan Foo
Peggy Lim
Chew Keng Hao
Lim Chun Huang
Videos for your information
The Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEEIhq3wbVA&list=PLv9Zhf3NMo4RAZQ4PbeS0qJePkSvoi-Pm
One of the family stories
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfTDVCqj_gw&list=PLv9Zhf3NMo4RAZQ4PbeS0qJePkSvoi-Pm&index=6&t=334s
A presentation was done at the NAS International Oral history conference
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1heqzErqP6Dvrf6NArc9UnQAE76iQBhgt/view?usp=sharing
