AS PART of Dementia Awareness Week, (May 14 – 20), the South West Heritage Trust is holding reminiscence sessions for two care homes in the Taunton area.

One will be held at the Somerset Heritage Centre and feature objects and documents from the county archives related to Taunton.

The other will be an outreach session about the joy of old fashioned sweets.

John French, learning officer with the Trust, said: “Our multi-activity sessions have been designed for people with dementia and are part of a popular suite of themed sessions on offer.

“Guided by trained experts, the sessions are activity rich and allow people to touch, handle and listen and to use their senses to stimulate recall.”

The South West Heritage Trust has signed up as an organisation to the Alzheimer’s Society’s Dementia Friends programme which is its biggest ever initiative to change people’s perceptions of dementia.

There are nearly two million Dementia Friends already signed up across England and Wales, who are going out into their communities with a greater understanding of dementia and some of the ways they can help people living with the condition.

Dementia Friends are helping to create communities in which people living with dementia feel more understood and included.

The trust’s Heritage Reminiscence sessions are available to groups in Somerset and Devon and cover a variety of themes such as ‘wildlife,’ ‘house and home’, and ‘food and farming’.

For more information click here.