Natural remedy for dementia & memory loss - old films

Here is a no medicine remedy for people with dementia or suffering memory loss, watch old films to jog their memory, particularly those showing everyday activities that patients will have experienced at one time or another in their youth.

This is being tried in a project called Memory Bank by YFA (Yorkshire Film Archive) in an 18-month research project.

Such films prompted conversations with the participants on everything from knitted bathing costumes, free school milk and 1960s fashion mistakes and clocking on at work, claims the organizer of Memory Bank.

YFA director Sue Howard said: "Memory Bank is about opening up our collections to a huge range of old people, many of whom face a number of age-related challenges, and who often have very few opportunities to see and enjoy films such as these. Reminiscence therapy and memory work play an invaluable role in improving a sense of personal identity and well being, and stimulating communication and sociability. Memory Bank is a unique proposition - it uses films taken largely from our home movie collections, which are a fantastic visual record of everyday life over the decades. It is these films that trigger our collective memories."