The Societatea Română Alzheimer has sucessfully participated(as lead partner) in an ERASMUS+ funded pilot project to create a training programme using creative drama and storytelling in dementia care. The target audience for the Story2Remember programme is health and social care professionals, people with dementia and care providers. A detailed training handbook has been developed for the Story2Remember programme, which is designed to provide new learning opportunities in the field of caring for people with Alzheimer's and dementia. The handbook can be downloaded from the project website in English, Romanian, Greek and Bulgarian: https://story2remember.eu/.
In tandem with the project’s booklet “Creative drama and storytelling in dementia care: Information for practitioners”, this new handbook is designed to equip health and social care professionals with all the necessary information, skills and materials to guide the delivery of the Story2Remember programme, in care settings. The training programme itself consists of several workshops based on storytelling and creative drama that were first tested in Ireland, in May 2019, in one of the Health Service Executive Centres. Following the successful testing in Ireland, trained professionals from Erasmus+ partners piloted the programme in the United Kingdom, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, involving over 80 professionals and over 70 people with dementia.
Some of the reported benefits are:
-
improving social interaction
-
supporting creativity
-
team bonding
-
improving well-being
-
improving self-esteem
-
learning new things
-
feeling relaxed
-
feeling motivated to read and write
-
creating memorable experiences.
The programme was developed by the Gaiety School of Acting and the National Theatre School of Ireland and was piloted together with the Erasmus+ partners (Societatea Română Alzheimer – lead partner, Habilitas – CRFP, Alzheimer Bulgaria, Alzheimer Hellas and Bournemouth University) between September and December 2019.
