Introduction

“Promoting well-being by valuing people’s memories” is the mission of the Reminiscence Network Northern Ireland (RNNI), a small membership organisation established ten years ago. From its beginnings RNNI has attracted enthusiastic commitment from people from many different professions, interests and service sectors. Its 100 or so individual and corporate members come from adult education, community arts, community development, education, health and social care, oral and local history, libraries, museums, supported housing and youth work. It also attracts students undertaking professional and vocational courses and volunteers of different ages with varied life experience.

Background

Following the efforts of a small steering group consisting of reminiscence practitioners, some of whom had also been undertaking ad hoc training, research and writing about reminiscence work since the early 1980s, the Northern Ireland organisation was officially launched in June 1999. It is a charity recognised for tax purposes (XR33961) whose Board of Management is elected annually. RNNI provides training, consultation, advice and information concerning reminiscence work, life review and life story work undertaken with people of all ages and engages in practical reminiscence projects, mostly in partnership with other organisations. RNNI maintains close links with older people’s organisations in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland but sees reminiscence as highly relevant to many people rather than restricted to particular age, disability groups or special environments.

Until recently RNNI has never employed salaried staff. It has depended upon board members volunteering time and a small number of paid sessional trainers and reminiscence practitioners who were supported by ad-hoc administrative assistance as required. Over the years it benefited considerably by close supportive links with a number of statutory and not for profit organisations who generously offered good will, encouragement, assistance in kind, training contracts and the occasional small injection of funds for specific projects. Although mostly drawing on local expertise, the Network’s training programme has been enriched by contributions from visiting academics, practitioners and researchers from other countries including England, Scotland, Australia and the US.

Recent developments

In the last two to three years RNNI has embarked on a major transformation. Commencing in May 2007 the Heritage Lottery funded a three year project Valuing Heritage by Valuing Memories. Initiated and managed by RNNI this involves a partnership with three local and one national museum, the Ulster American Folk Park. Two part-time project workers are attached to these museums, Katrina Lavery in Craigavon and Newry, and Deirdre Doherty in Omagh and Derry. They have established local reminiscence loan box services and are attracting new audiences into the museums, promoting and supporting reminiscence groups through community outreach and organising an extensive series of training workshops. Activities designed to capture local knowledge and enrich museums’ programmes, exhibitions and collections are being developed. The museums are committed to becoming hubs to foster reminiscence and life story work beyond the lifetime of the project. They manage the loan box services and their staff who have developed reminiscence skills by participating in the project’s training and development programme will support continuing opportunities for local networking so that reminiscence work is sustained in the years ahead.

In 2008 Atlantic Philanthropies, a charitable trust, awarded RNNI a substantial grant, tapered over five years. This has enabled the Network to employ a fulltime development manager; Alexey Janes, an administrative officer; Avril Fairbrother and a part-time training and facilitation office;, Margaret Gordon and to establish a small accessible resource centre located in downtown Belfast. With operational management in the competent hands of salaried staff, RNNI has moved on to a new phase. The Board is now able to devote itself to policy development, strategic planning and marketing, securing longer-term financial viability and to reviewing its governance arrangements which will become necessary with the impending introduction of a Northern Ireland Charity Commission later this year.

Achievements

Looking back RNNI has come a long way from its modest informal beginnings and has had some notable achievements along the way. It sustains a regular training programme utilising various teaching methods and formats. It undertakes practice-based demonstration projects and offers consultative advice and information to other organisations. It contributes to policy discussions and influenced recommendations of the Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability (Bamford Report 2006) concerning the relevance of reminiscence and other psychosocial, educational, occupational and creative interventions to improving the well-being of frail and vulnerable older people. It has extended the capacity of substantial numbers of staff from public libraries, museums and health and social care agencies to reach new and under-served audiences and has benefited immensely as an organisation from the expertise people from such backgrounds and others have made as office bearers and board members. In 2003 RNNI organised a very successful three day conference of the UK Reminiscence Network, Reminiscence and Community Integration which attracted some 150 participants and was held at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum.

Most training is offered on a multi-disciplinary, multi-agency basis but some is commissioned as in-house bespoke workshops. Some advanced training events are profession and or client specific as illustrated by a recent request by speech and language therapists for training in life story work for people with learning disabilities. Our cross-sector, multi-disciplinary and inter-professional membership is our great strength while the cross-border perspective, together with respected expertise, makes RNNI uniquely well placed to promote and develop reminiscence work and linked creative activities within many other organisations throughout the island of Ireland.

In its training and facilitation work RNNI has embraced a variety of reminiscence activities. These range from simple reminiscence and life story work with individuals and small groups, to heritage and history, inter-generational work, using reminiscence to establish common ground in cross-community groups, and adapting reminiscence to the particular needs of people in contexts such as education, sheltered housing, and specialist health and social care, for example dementia services. Explicitly defined and more structured methodologies have also been taught and facilitated with encouraging outcomes and high levels of participant satisfaction. For example, RNNI was a founder member, together with Belfast’s historic Linenhall Library and the Ulster People’s College of Community Archiving Northern Ireland (CANNI). A number of demonstration groups with people who have dementia and their family, professional carers and volunteers based on the Remembering Yesterday, CaringToday approach pioneered by the European Reminiscence Network (Schweitzer and Bruce 2008) with whom we maintain close links have also been run in partnership with staff from statutory services.

Other examples of the Network’s activities include a pilot project with Mencap which explored the use of life story work with ageing carers of adult children with learning disabilities as a device for engaging carers in futures planning. A cross-border rural women’s memory writing group was facilitated. Working with a local cancer charity an autobiographical writing group based on Birren and Cochrane (2001) for people who had been diagnosed with cancer proved very worthwhile. Members collaborated with Barbara Haight from the Medical University of South Carolina in a controlled structured life review/life story book study with people living in three different types of protected care in Northern Ireland (Haight, Michael and Gibson 2006). Currently some 35 staff from dementia day care and residential services in the integrated Northern Health and Social Care Trust are being trained to implement life story work and to use a prototype life story book in preparation for establishing such work as an integral part of service provision throughout the Trust, and hopefully in the future also with a wider range of service users. A half day event “Blowing Your Own Trumpet” recently enabled Network members to learn from each other, celebrate and value achievements and generate ideas about possible future directions.

Future intentions

These include seeking recognition and validation of parts of the training portfolio by appropriate accreditation and standards setting bodies, contributing a module at qualifying and post qualifying levels, possibly with an Elearning element, to courses for museum, library and health and social care professionals, standard setting for practitioners and recruitment of additional tutors and facilitators. Advocacy with policy makers and service providers about the pivotal importance and potential health gain linked to involvement in narrative-based creative activities will also be further energetically pursued. There will be increased attention to membership support, the continued publication of the twice yearly newsletter, website updating and development of a higher public profile. The Valuing Heritage by Valuing Memories project will continue for another year and further opportunities for partnership projects including possibly the preparation of volunteer home visitors will be sought.

The Network is committed to enhancing people’s understanding of the processes involved and outcomes achieved of recalled, reviewed and re-constructed ordinary but wonderful recollections of personal life experience, accessed through memory and imagination and preserved and transmitted in innumerable ways. RNNI sees itself as a resource to other organisations, reminiscence practitioners, researchers, students, community groups, families and individuals who wish to capture, preserve and transmit their own unique personal legacy.

Because of the generosity of its funders and the commitment of many people, the Network is now well placed to focus on achieving and documenting skilled evidence based reminiscence practice and contributing to building knowledge about the rich reservoir of biographical memory retrieved through reminiscence and linked creative activities. RNNI seeks to make a difference to people in the present by using their past to improve understanding, appreciation of and communication about how they have got to where they now find themselves, regardless of age and the changing circumstances and challenges they now face.

Contact Information

www.rnni.org

Alexeyjanes@rnni.org

Reminiscence Network Northern Ireland

Community House

Citylink Business Park

6a Albert Street

Belfast BT12 4HQ Tel: 18002 028 90237820

References

Bamford Report (2006) Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability. Department of Health and Public Safety (NI). Belfast: DHSCPSNI.

Birren, J. and Cochran, K. (2001). Telling the Stories of Life through Guided Autobiography Groups. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Height, B.,K., Gibson, F., and Michel, Y. (2006) The Northern Ireland Life review/Lifestorybook Project for people with dementia. Alzheimer’s & Dementia, 2, 56-58.

Schweitzer, p. & Bruce, E (2008) Remembering Yesterday, Caring Today: reminiscence in dementia care. London. Jessica Kingsley.