Education & Communities

The House of Memories

Training programme overview

‘The House of Memories’ is a museum reminiscence training programme developed and delivered by National Museums Liverpool, through the kind support of the Department of Health.

The programme will be delivered January to March 2012 and is centred on the fantastic objects, archives and life stories, held within National Museums Liverpool. It aims to provide social care staff (in care home and home care settings), with new skills and resources to share with people living with dementia, that will positively contribute to their wellbeing and quality of life, and offer potential alternatives to medication.

Our work with older people

National Museums Liverpool (NML) comprises seven museums and galleries across Liverpool and the Wirral. In July 2011 we opened the Museum of Liverpool, which showcases Liverpool and Merseyside’s fantastic cultural heritage, innovation and creativity. In the first three months since opening more than 560,000 people have visited our new museum.

Our experience of working with older people is extensive and wide ranging. We began in 2000, to test ways of engaging older people in the arts. Through this, we were able to evidence how participation in our museum projects has a direct and meaningful impact on people who are most vulnerable in our communities.

More recently we received national recognition by winning the Guardian Public Services, Care of Older People Award 2010.

‘House of Memories’ training outcomes

Participants will be encouraged to:

• access a wide range of practical skills and knowledge to develop their practice;
• understand how information about a person’s family history and personality can be used to support an individual to live well with dementia;
• communicate with an individual using a range of cultural and arts based methods to stimulate positive interactions;
• help individuals living with dementia enjoy life and make a positive contribution towards re-building self esteem and confidence;
• provide a safe and secure environment for older people living with dementia in a museum and/or care setting;
• involve carers and extended family to support individuals living with dementia, through shared creative activity;
• connect with the National Museums Liverpool elder care programmes;
• measure individual achievement aligned to the new Skills for Care (QCF) training strands.

How to book your place

The training programme is a whole day workshop session (9.30am - 4.30pm) at the Museum of Liverpool, Pier Head, Liverpool.

We are offering 20 training dates for Merseyside, Warrington, Cheshire and Halton from January to March 2012.

January:

• 11, 12, 24 and 25 January 2012

February:

• 1, 2, 7, 8, 21, 22, 28 and 29 February 2012

March:

• 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27 and 28 March 2012

To book your place telephone 0151 478 4788 or contact our bookings team to enquire.