Reminiscence Groups Gaining Popularity With Elderly, Caregivers

SIMSBURY (AP) — Baldomero Gomez sat silently as other senior citizens in the McLean Health Center reminisced for almost an hour about long-ago blizzards, vacations, and Yankee baked-bean dinners.

When the conversation turned to dancing, Gomez suddenly beamed. The 89-year-old was quickly on his feet, dancing the salsa steps of his youth to the surprise of those who wrongly assumed he had been dozing all along.

To Mary Mitchell, a gerontologist leading the reminiscence session, it was just the kind of connection that the deceptively casual discussions are designed to spark.

The sessions, known as reminiscence groups, are gaining popularity as those who work with aging people have discovered the emotional and cognitive benefits of nostalgia. It is a sea change from the days when reminiscence was dismissed as a time-waster or, at worst, the warning signs of senility.

Now, trained discussion leaders like Ms Mitchell find their rooms filled to capacity when they schedule reminiscence sessions at senior centers, churches, and rehabilitation facilities.

Gerontologists liken reminiscing to calisthenics for the brain. They say the right triggers — an object, a smell, perhaps a song — can even unlock vivid memories in some Alzheimer’s disease and dementia patients.

“Often the remote memory is preserved even if the immediate memory is problematic, so many times they can recount events from many years ago even if they don’t recall what they had for breakfast,” said Robert Butler, president of the International Longevity Center in New York City and one of the nation’s top experts in reminiscence and related fields.

Mr Butler and others say reminiscence is cathartic, and confirms to people that even the most unpleasant memories have value as part of the larger fabric of their lives.

“When you really stop and listen to them, what they’re doing is settling scores and making sense of their lives,” said Mary Alice Wolf, a gerontology professor at Saint Joseph College in West Hartford and a reminiscence specialist.

“It’s a very healthy phenomenon, not just ‘Mr So-and-So won’t stop talking,’” she said.

It is also part of a developmental phase known as “life review,” in which older adults accept their mortality by taking stock and making peace with the events of their lives.

In 1995, the first national conference on reminiscence and life review drew about 150 attendees to the University of Wisconsin-Superior.

Now held every second year, it draws a diverse group of therapists, gerontologists, social workers, and others who believe reminiscence boosts the brain and soothes the soul.

“I see a lot of it also being fueled by the baby boomers who are retiring, who realize their parents are dying and they’re missing their stories,” said John Kunz, founder and manager of the Wisconsin-based International Society for Reminiscence and Life Review.

Others agree, noting the recent interest boom in biographies, autobiographies, documentaries, and other stories of real people and their experiences.

In fact, among the most popular people on the YouTube Internet site is “geriatric1927,” a grandfatherly British retiree who reminisces on everything from his love of motorcycles to his World War II experiences.

At one point last summer, his video snippets were the most-subscribed offering on YouTube.

The same nostalgic chat that makes “geriatric1927” so popular with viewers can be found in many discussion groups, where the leaders toss out questions or topics they hope will spark interest around the room.

They are also trained to spot unhealthy types of reminiscence — brooding, rehashing of injustices — and help those people get therapy and other special attention.

At the McLean center’s sessions, the gatherings take on a social, relaxed tone as Ms Mitchell cracks jokes and puts miscellaneous items on the table to prompt memories and chat.

At one such session, she brought a golf ball that her husband plucked off a course in Hawaii. Next to that, she lined up a yo-yo, a glass apple, and a glazed miniature bean pot similar to those from which many old-time Yankees ladled out their Sunday dinners.

Each item prompted comments and wide-ranging discussions of first suitors, family dinners, and long-ago favorite friends.

“Sometimes I remember things I hadn’t thought about for a long time,” said 87-year-old Theresa Gallus, of Springfield, Mass. “Sometimes it surprises me, the things I remember.”

Ms Mitchell, who leads reminiscence groups near her homes in Simsbury and in Vero Beach, Fla., said participants get dual benefits: enjoyment in sharing their memories, and pleasure that others find those memories interesting.

“Sometimes you’ll have someone who sits there and doesn’t say a word, then some topic clicks for them,” Ms Mitchell said. “It’s like pushing a button — they just come alive.”