Memories evoked in dementia patients with the help of BBC RemArc

Since its launch in 2016, 73 per cent of survey respondents from the 17,000 people who used BBC RemArc said that the service triggered long term memories in them. 

BBC RemArc helps with Reminiscence Therapy which assists people who have dementia, their carers and families, at home, in hospital wards or in care homes to interact and converse in a natural way by stimulating the patient’s long-term memory with material from the past.

It was created by the BBC’s Archive Development team with the help of experts at Dundee University, the University of St Andrews and with the support of Alzheimer’s Society.

BBC RemArc contains around 1,500 items from the BBC Archives, including around 250 video clips, 250 audio clips and over 1,000 images. The material ranges in date from the 1930s to the 2000s - much of it has not been available to the public for decades.

After further research, a number of changes are announced today to enhance user experience. These include adding a button to display information about the archive material users are viewing, increasing contrasts and font sizes for ease of use and making it easier to load a refreshed set of content for continued opportunity for reminiscence.

Matthew Postgate, BBC Chief Technology and Product Officer says: “The BBC has a great history of innovation that helps to make people’s lives better. It has been fascinating to hear accounts of how the service has helped improve quality of life for patients and their families, friends and carers. I am very proud of the work that BBC RemArc has done and we will continue to work to improve the service to best serve their needs.”

Kathryn Smith, Director of Operations at Alzheimer’s Society says: “Dementia affects 850,000 people in the UK today and this is set to rise to one million by 2021. It’s more important than ever that people with dementia are supported to live well with their condition. We know that reminiscence can be a powerful way of connecting people affected by dementia with their memories and improving their mood.

"We have really enjoyed working closely with the BBC as their Reminiscence Archive tool has developed, tailored to the feedback of people affected by dementia. People who have used BBC’s RemArc talk really positively about their experience of it as a helpful reminiscence tool and enjoyable activity.”

Dr Norman Alm, an Honorary Research Fellow at Dundee University says: “I have again and again seen the difference between interacting with and without this kind of carefully-designed technological help - and the difference is unbelievable. RemArc is a boon to people with dementia and just as importantly to their carers, who can sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation, with RemArc doing all the heavy-lifting of supporting the interaction and keeping it lively, engaging, and importantly, unpredictable.”

RemArc was launched on BBC Taster – the home of new ideas from the BBC and is available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/projects/remarc

BBC RemArc is available for free, globally, and works on all browsers. The software is available for free under an open source licence, so that people can build their own reminiscence archives or reversion RemArc with new languages.

February 28, 2017 10:59am ET by BBC One  

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