Originally a creative producer in media communications, Sarah Reed founded Many Happy Returns in 2008 as a result of fifteen years’ voluntary work with the charity Contact the Elderly and her mother’s experience with dementia over ten years

Many Happy Returns 1940s is a lovely box of 24 carefully researched reminiscence cards designed to get old and young talking together about how life used to be, helping them to celebrate their personal and family stories. Talking with older friends or relatives who can remember the 1940s has never been easier using these unique and compelling memory triggers that can help bring the generations together. The cards offer a range of everyday subjects with large images, historical information and conversational prompts – from cleaning the step to playing conkers, from evacuation to rationing, from playing in the streets to that very first kiss… For more information, go to :

http://www.thefutureperfectcompany.com/shop/items/138/many_happy_returns_1940s__new

2. Mind Dice

I came across this product a couple of weeks ago. Mind Dice is a product “to help people with dementia communicate with their carers. Prompts added to a 12 sided dice, enable the person to tap into their remaining memories provoking stories and responses that can be enjoyed by family, carers and friends” .

Mind Dice has been designed and produced by John Sprange through his direct experience of caring for his father who had Alzheimers. John Sprange writes on his website :”My father had a rich store of memories. He was born in 1914, the last year that horse buses ran in London. He watched and enjoyed technological advances and changes throughout his life. Towards the end he enjoyed the possibilities of my I-phone, marvelling at the pictures and capabilities of this pocket-size device.

When he died, aged 95, mixed with my grief was a sense of loss for my access to his personal connection to all those years he lived through. His eyes were in effect my personal witness to almost a whole century, and through this I had become an expert on what he knew. In his later days, despite not recalling what happened 5 minutes before, he was able to recollect memories from long ago. Frequently he brought to mind events that placed him where he was happiest and at the height of his powers. Any repetition was often mitigated by the nuanced differences which emerged with the stories. They certainly showed his true sense of himself. I experimented with the dice, which carried, names of people, place and themes. He would sit rolling it in his hands, reading the prompts and saying. ‘This is my life’ with a sense of surprise.”

For more information, visit  http://www.minddice.co.uk/

3. The Hub

This design was produced by student Chloe Meineck as a response to our “Designing for the Future” competition at the Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton.

The Hub is a multi sensory device which stores electronically the soundtrack of a person’s life including favourite music and maybe even people’s voices and ambient sounds. These can be accessed randomly by pulling the differently shaped wooden handpulls.  The idea is to create a shared and engaging reminiscence activity for a dementia sufferer and their families.

Current research about dementia suggests that favourite music can help evoke strong memories about people, places and events which might otherwise be difficult to access.

This product is very appealing and is designed to become a precious possession.  For more information, visit http://chloemeineck.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html

Let us know what you think of these designs? Have you used any of them and if so, what was your experience?