Technology's gentle touch helps ease dementia
FRANK URQUHART
CLIPS from classic films, footage of pop stars of the 1950s and 1960s, and snatches of songs from hit parades of the past are helping transform the lives of dementia sufferers by rekindling lost memories with the aid of touch-screen technology.
A remarkable "memory jukebox" has been developed by psychologists at St Andrews University and computer experts at Dundee University, together with researchers at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee.
The system, known as the Computer Interactive Reminiscence and Conversation Aid (CIRCA), contains packages of film clips, once-popular songs, old radio programmes and photographs, which can be accessed via a touch screen to help spur people with dementia to begin reminiscing about their past.
And the results of the research have been amazing. In one poignant case, a 56-year-old woman with early-onset dementia, being cared for at home by her husband, began swinging her hands in time to the music, laughing and smiling when the system was used to access classic footage of Elvis Presley in concert.
As the King sang, she rubbed noses with her husband who later told researchers it was his wife's way of telling him that "she remembered".
Many carers also reported that people with Alzheimer's disease "seemed like their old selves again" after the technology had been used to help spark a conversation.
Dr Arlene Astell, of the School of Psychology at St Andrews, is leading the pioneering research programme. "The results have been better than we dared to hope," she said yesterday.
"Initially we thought the system would only be used by care givers, but we found very quickly that people with dementia could use the system themselves and make choices about what they wanted to watch or listen to.
"Many carers were pleasantly surprised at how much people remembered and how easily they adapted to using the system. Many carers reported that sufferers seemed like their old selves again."
Dr Astell added: "CIRCA exploits the fact that, while dementia sufferers find it hard to recall recent events, longer-term memory is less affected by their condition.
"Their main problem is keeping track of what is going on at the moment and being able to initiate conversation.
"Dementia sufferers' declining ability to hold normal conversations causes a lot of stress and frustration. But helping them access their memories will make living with dementia more bearable and less distressing for sufferers and their carers."
The research team developed the CIRCA system by adapting touch-screen technology already used in speech therapy.
The database is tailored to each individual case and the system is expected to become commercially available within the next three years. The research team is now examining whether the system could also be used for people with learning disabilities or head injuries.
Gabrielle Colston-Taylor, the service manager with Alzheimer's Scotland, praised the new system. She said: "We are working with people with dementia all the time and we are trying to find ways to communicate with them and help them have a sense of their identity by connecting with their memories.
"CIRCA enables both the carers and the service users to share a new journey together and some of the results have been remarkable. Some people talked about things that we hadn't heard them talk about before, because whatever they saw or heard from the computer sparked a memory."
From (thescotsman.scotsman.com)