Life story work in Care homes

I have come to love doing life story work in Care homes and thought I might tell you a little bit about one aspect, my story-gathering workshops which are proving to be a lot of fun, endlessly fascinating, truly life-affirming, and extraordinarily popular with the residents.

I would love help to spread the love and bring these workshops to other care settings so please do share with a care home near you!

What is life story work?

There are many many definitions of life story work, which I won’t get into here. At its simplest, it is about helping people to tell their stories in whatever way is best for them.

I come from a museum background where we use oral history as a resource for audiences and researchers. In such settings, oral histories are not recorded for the storyteller’s benefit. So when I first started to explore life stories, it was the output of the conversation that I believed was important, important for families and carers. I have since come to understand that there is also huge power in the conversation itself, and that is what we do in the story-gathering workshops.

In a care home setting, the information gathered in life story work is often used to help improve the resident’s well-being. I find the following to be a really helpful and simple definition of this work:

‘Life story works is, above all, a process that involves having helpful conversations to elicit, capture and use stories about a person, in order to promote their personhood and their wellbeing and keep them connected with family, friends and community.’ (Kaiser and Eley, 2017)

What is a Story Gathering workshop?

We listen and share stories, memories, thoughts and reflections on life, and our life stories. Participants are helped to recall and share memories with gentle questions and prompts on a particular topic, for example, family history, leisure and hobbies, the future, etc. The workshops are structured so that all participants contribute, regardless of their capacity.

Sometimes a workshop may include a filming or recording element; so residents can share elements of their life stories with care staff, or families and friends later. Sometimes it is enough to share the story in the group.

Workshops can be stand-alone one-off workshops, but, they are at their best when run as either a series or as an ongoing activity.

The groups are ideally kept to a maximum of around six participants, in that way everyone has a good chance to talk, and even more importantly everyone can hear. Sometimes that means getting creative, I’ve learned that hearing aids can be problematic, but there’s always a way to make sure everyone can hear the stories being shared.

What makes the Story-gathering workshops special for residents?

At its core there is something incredibly validating about sharing stories, reflecting, and being heard. Finding topics of commonality or difference, learning about each other’s lives, discovering a shared experience, or just being listened to by fellow residents who want to hear your story can be deeply validating.

Participants are always eager to share their stories, they want to talk about their memories, and they want the opportunity to reflect. Childhood and the war years are a theme that we seem to come back to regularly with one group. The experience of being evacuated, living and working in London during the Blitz, are experiences that one group are eager to share regularly, ditto memories of grandparents, earliest memories, going to dances, and youth groups, meeting future partners and first jobs.

Sometimes the stories are repeated, and that’s OK, sometimes we hear new little gems. After many sessions, one lady who had hardly spoken about her childhood recalled a little memory of sitting on the cold paving stones outside the London Hospital to wave her flag at Queen Mary who was visiting. She described what Queen Mary was wearing in so much detail that, we all felt like we were there, that we too saw Queen Mary visit the London Hospital.

Giving the residents a space where they are the experts is also an important element in the workshops’ popularity. In an environment where residents often have little control, in this session they are the experts, no question. We focus on the parts of their lives that they recall, we may stretch people's memories, once we start talking, but we ensure that all participants are successful in recalling memories and sharing their stories, their truth.

I know the participants enjoy themselves. They tell me so, constantly! To be honest, the feelings are mutual, and while my role is merely to facilitate, the moments of magic like when a long-forgotten memory comes to mind are incredibly rewarding and I know the participants feel the same.

But, how do I know? Well when I am running regular story-gathering workshops in a care home, residents are always anxious to be there. Last week two regular participants in one group had not attended, this week they both expressed frustration that visits by family and friends had kept them away from the workshop.

Previously, visiting family members joined us, which has been awesome. It’s wonderful to see family proudly listen in as their relative shares stories. In one workshop, the granddaughter of a resident joined us. We were discussing marriage and her grandmother spoke about her wedding day and described her lovely husband, the groom. I could see huge pride in the granddaughter's eyes, and she took out her phone and found a photo of her grandmother and late grandfather and went on to tell us about her own wedding where she wore her grandmother's veil.

Challenging memories

Some memories are challenging. Most of the participants have experienced challenges and difficult times. Right at the end of a session, one lady spoke about her husband and his sudden and unexpected death, ‘My life pretty much ended when he died’, she said. Just at that moment, the tea trolly rolled in and the workshop was interrupted. The next week, she spoke some more. She told us how she forced herself to go back to work and to make new friends and went on to describe the pleasure she had volunteering and the wonderful days out and holidays that she enjoyed with her new friends and work colleagues. Has that opportunity to reflect changed the way she tells her story and sees herself? Who knows, but I hope it has maybe moved her mindset a little. Her life didn’t end when her husband died, from her descriptions I would say that she went on to live a full and fulfilling life.

Connections

Is it the chance to listen, to hear others' stories, to find out more about their fellow residents, to find out what (and in many cases who) they have in common?

I have recently been in discussion with staff who are desperate for new resident George to attend. George has recently moved into the care home and the transition is not going well. He has not settled in, he has been largely ignored by his fellow residents, many of whom are finding it hard to see beyond his blindness. His family is worried about him, of course. So this week George joined us, and after a little while we heard a little more of George. It turned out he was born in the same hospital as one lady, went to school with someone else's cousin, and shared the same wedding photographer as someone else (we strayed from our topic someone this week), everyone enjoyed hearing about George's life, and a particularly intriguing story involving a Prime Ministers tooth!

We finished the workshop and I stayed to chat over tea. I had to leave and asked if they needed anything or wanted to move anywhere. No, they all said, we are just fine here. As I left I could hear them all talking and asking George if he knew this person and that place, and it felt really lovely.

What next?

A message for all Care homes out there, if your residents have stories to tell, I'm here for you.

I totally understand how busy you are. I know it is rarely possible to slow down and allow conversations to emerge but maybe consider life story work or a story-gathering workshop in your activity planning. I am happy to run workshops myself or to train others! Feel free to give me a ring me on 07903582474 or email alice@thestorykeepers.co.uk