The Memory Boards Project at Willow Court

Willow Court, our care home in Harpenden, was featured on the Andy Collins Three Counties Radio Show yesterday morning (29th March 2023). The home has been working with two charities, Remap and Men in Sheds, alongside the Harpenden Trust to help design and test Memory Boards which were developed to help residents living with dementia.

These boards are designed to engage residents in an activity that’s often very specific to their own life histories, making successful engagement far more likely because the activity would relate to a personal life experience that they strongly associate with.

For example, one of the residents at Willow Court spent many decades working in the plumbing and heating trade and would often show interest in the plumbing and heating system within the home. One Memory Board delivered to the home specifically targets this interest and is called The Plumber’s Mate. It includes adjustable pipework set on a wooden framework with a pump at one end of the pluming layout and a fan at the other. The fan spins with the pumped airflow when the pipework is correctly laid out. The resident in the home engages with the board and adjusts the pipework in any number of ways, testing the airflow as changes are made.

Willow Court’s association with the project began when Michelle Tramiro, the activities coordinator in the home, was searching the market for sensory boards that were specific to individuals in the home, without success. She appealed to the Harpenden Trust and put forward some ideas and the Trust kindly agreed to set aside funding for the project. Contact was soon made with the Men in Sheds and Martin Young, a volunteer engineer from the Remap charity and the project went from conception, through design and testing, to completion.

Delivery of the boards to Willow Court was made last week and Martin Young and Michelle were both interviewed yesterday morning on Three Counties Radio by Andy Collins, who discussed the project with them.

On the day of delivery Michelle thanked the Harpenden Trust for their funding and support and also Martin Young for all the effort that he put into turning the project from an idea into a reality.