Memory Archive: Promoting health and wellbeing

The Memory Archive offers free curated digital archive materials suitable for reminiscence with people living with dementia. It is a People’s Collection Wales initiative led by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. While aimed at healthcare professionals and family members, the Memory Archive is open and available for everyone to use.

The Memory Archive offers the following:

• 30 Collections with images, video clips and sound recordings for use in reminiscence sessions. Based on consultation with healthcare professionals, the collections are catalogued by decade (1940s to the 1980s) and by theme (for example, Christmas, significant events, farming, cars, school life, music and dancing) to make for easy use.

• A teaching resource for Foundation Phase and Key Stages 2 to 4 pupils to raise dementia awareness. This explains the idea of reminiscence and why this is important for people living with dementia. It shows how to use the images from the Memory Archive in two practical reminiscence activities: creating a Memory Tree (structured by theme) or a Memory Timeline (chronological), adding images that encourage conversation and stimulate recall.
• A series of Memory Tree and Timeline posters for use with the reminiscence activities.

Reina van der Wiel

Governance and Risk Manager

05/18/2023