What do we mean when we talk about dementia? (workshop for museum staff)

This workshop is structured around the themes of i) identity and linked closely to this awareness and ii) language and communication. These themes were identified in previous research with dementia care home staff (Descartes project) as being the most significant for understanding the experiences of people living with a dementia. Interspersed with these themes we will be looking at paintings and objects together using the kinds of questions that have been developed when working with people with a dementia we will conclude (but not using Wellcome collection objects). The focus of this is really the questions and ways of interacting with people with dementia, our approach here is relational – in other words the ways in which museum objects can strengthen the relationships between people with a dementia and their carers and otherswith Paul outlining some of the particular ways of working within Museums.