Wednesday, 6 September 2017

One Thousand Pictures a Million Memories


memories should not be forgotten

Memory loss can cause a form of grief, a sadness that is hard to shake.

Because memories can be forgotten I try to capture as many memories as I can on film and in pictures.  Towards the end of every year I turn these into books for family and for myself because I don’t want to forget these moments and I want Blogger Babies to grow up knowing that moments weren’t missed but celebrated and shared.

Before, freeprints (https://www.freeprintsapp.co.uk/) and freeprints photobook (http://www.freeprintsphotobooks.co.uk/) I would manually print our pictures and put into albums.  This became tedious and expensive, but I didn’t want to stop as it enabled me to remember my year and talk through it with Blogger Babies and Daddy.

Since my grandmother was diagnosed with Dementia, I also found that these books were a great asset for her too.

Like Music – photos can bring back 1000’s of memories and the benefits are consistent.

·    Photographs evoke emotions and this in turn can evoke memories which can help sufferers and family members to connect together.
·     Aptitude and appreciation are two of the last remaining abilities in dementia patients – it is one of the first cognitive skills we develop as new-born children and is one of the last things to leave us in degenerative cognitive diseases.
·     Pictures can bring an emotional and physical closeness the association that a patient makes with a picture can encourage them to complete actions such hugging which they associate with that picture. It can also enhance feelings of security and safety among vulnerable patients.

Over 800,000 people currently live with the condition and roughly 25 million people  nearly half the UK population  are affected by it through knowing someone with the condition.

Photo Albums offers a way to care for people suffering from dementia in a sensitive, relationship-centred and cost-effective manner. It can also be a vital tool to support families who can reconnect with their loved ones through a picture and a shared memory, even when other forms of communication have become difficult.

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