New resource developed to support local sports organisations
By Geraldine Fitzgerald
If somebody you love suffers from dementia, you’ll know it can be difficult to find a way to engage them.
It can be a very lonely place, both for the dementia patient and family, as it’s so hard to rediscover a shared sphere of reference.
More than 7,500 people in Cork suffer from some form of dementia, with most being able to remember past events much more readily than recent ones.
One of the most consistently reliable topics to engage people is sport they recall from bygone years.
A new ‘Sporting Memories Handbook’ has now been developed to support local sports organisations in setting up Sporting Memories groups.
The booklet, supported by the Dementia: Understand Together campaign and an initiative of the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, is designed to help set up local forums for people with dementia, families, supporters and friends to reminisce and talk about bygone sporting days as well as encourage participation in physical activity.
Donal Murphy, Operations Project Manager at the Alzheimer Society of Ireland, explained: “From GAA to rugby, football to golf, people are immersed in sport from an early age as players, as club members, and as spectators. Sport gives us so much pleasure and often punctuates our lives with golden sporting moments of joy and ecstasy.
“Allegiance to club, county, and country, gives us a sense of identity that binds us together like nothing else, creating memories that last a lifetime…we want to use the power of sport to help bring people together, and to re-establish that connection between people with dementia and the communities in which they live.”
The handbook is part of the wider rollout of the Sporting Memories programme in communities across Ireland, aiming to inspire and encourage local sporting clubs and organisations to organise regular Sporting Memories groups within their localities.
The groups bring people together to reminisce about their lives through the medium of sport, using images, video footage, memorabilia, quizzes, and guest talks to spark memories and encourage social engagement. By using sporting cues, the purpose is to stimulate memory, improve communication and social skills, as well as create a sense of camaraderie and belonging.
The informative handbook is a how-to guide on setting up a Sporting Memories group and is full of practical and useful tips on communication, engagement and supportive environments. It explains how you can access resources and what’s needed to organise a group.
For more information on the Sporting Memories programme, or to access the handbook, visit alzheimer.ie or understandtogether.ie.
To order a copy of the handbook, go to healthpromotion.ie.