A new digital app for people living with dementia has been launched at the House of Commons.
National Museums Liverpool has created the My House of Memories app and is setting the challenge to find a way to ensure that every care home in the country has access to a free digital tablet so that residents living with dementia can enjoy the benefits new technologies can offer.
The app is about connecting people and enabling families and carers to continue building relationships with people who are living with dementia. Using a simple format to stimulate memory, it allows people to browse social history objects from the Museum of Liverpool’s collection to prompt reminiscence, which can instigate conversation, special moments and shared memories between parents, sons and daughters, carers and their clients.
The objects featured in the app are brought to life with multimedia, and app users can save objects to their own memory trees, memory boxes or memory timelines. Carers can also create personal profiles for the different people they support.
Phil Redmond, chairman of National Museums Liverpool, said: “The launch of this app is a real high point in our work around dementia awareness and is the culmination of months of consultation, discussion and planning to produce a truly wonderful memory resource co-created with people living with dementia.
The launch of this app is a real high point in our work around dementia awareness and is the culmination of months of consultation, discussion and planning to produce a truly wonderful memory resource co-created with people living with dementia
“The content themes are wide ranging and designed to be intuitive, allowing users to follow a memory path of their choice. The app can save chosen images onto a personal memory tree which can be saved and recalled, so it’s perfect for a residential care setting as one tablet can be used for a number of residents.”
National Museums Liverpool also has wider aspirations to develop the app further, adapting the content for different locations around the country. It is part of the organisation’s wider House of Memories dementia awareness programme, which has been running since 2012. To date it has trained more than 5,000 carers across Merseyside, the North and Midlands to gain awareness and develop deeper understanding of dementia using local museums and cultural venues as a vital resource.
Speaking at the launch event, Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb, said: "Helping people live well with dementia is the biggest challenge we face. I'm delighted to support the House of Memories, an exceptional project which is making a huge difference to the way people care for those with dementia. Such a simple but brilliant idea, we must never forget how important it is to support innovative ways of caring for people with dementia.”
Carol Rogers, executive director of education, communities and visitors at National Museums Liverpool, added: “Although the app uses objects from our social history collection here in Liverpool, they are relevant to people everywhere. The objects act as prompts to unlock people’s own collections of memories that might be tucked away at the back of their minds, inspiring conversation and interaction. If we can make the app accessible to every care home across the country, it would be a fantastic achievement.”
