“I think I am a happier person now that I know I can do it - it’s allowed me to say I have some value,” according to Roger Duggan, Service User, commenting as the Memory Harbour service recently launched ‘Fondest Regards’ - a new collection of short plays by the Harbour Playwrights in collaboration with the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council Arts Office.
Part of a national network of HSE Memory Technology Resource Rooms, the Memory Harbour is an assistive technology and memory enablement demonstration site where people with memory concerns or dementia and their families, when referred, can meet with an Occupational Therapist for a consultation.
Each member of the Harbour Playwrights was seen in the Memory Harbour and then invited to participate in a creative writing group. Through this project, they navigated the brain health challenges of planning, organising, and meeting new people, as well as challenging their language skills to reflect and write this new collection of short plays.
The group was supported to create this new collection of short ‘letter’ plays by playwright Michelle Read, Catherine Daly (Senior Occupational Therapist), Ciara McWeeney (Senior Speech and Language Therapist) and volunteers from the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Volunteer Centre, led by Clare Cryan. The volunteers, who received bespoke training in brain health and dementia, played a key role in increasing participation and attendance. The publication and accompanying video were also supported by the HSE National Dementia Office and the Understand Together campaign.
Reflecting on his experience Roger noted how it had “changed my life, to be honest. I was sort of vegetating at home. Coming down here, it was a social as well as a learning experience. It was exciting - we were creating something and that was lovely.”
According to Catherine Daly, the collaboration is really important because “essentially what we are doing is bringing people with memory difficulties out of the health service realm and into their library, into this beautiful building. Its right in the heart of their community – where people live.
“When we have creative thoughts or engage in any kind of creative practices, essentially what we are doing is we are really building our cognitive reserve. As Occupational Therapists, we collaborate all the time with clients so to me it’s only the next step to start to collaborate with other organisations around.”
For Anne Bushe, Service User, involvement in the programme represented the “first time in my life I ever wrote a poem. It was a kind of opening up – doing something I’d never done before. I feel like I was being taken through different things to help me cope with my memory loss.” She added that “what’s so good about the programme is the other people that are there – and also it helps you realise what you have and what you can use.”
Ciara McWeeney, Senior Speech and Language Therapist in Primary Care, HSE Dublin South and Wicklow, joined the programme this year and noted that this was ‘the first time occupational therapy and speech and language therapy have collaborated on a programme such as this.
“It has enabled Catherine and I to combine our expertise and led to improved outcomes for our clients. The philosophy underpinning a programme such as this is that creativity can be a shield for our brains.”
Ciara further noted how they have received “tremendous support from Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and I’ve seen at first hand how a partnership like this can really help to better meet the needs of the local community.”
Máire Davey, Assistant Arts Officer, DLR Arts Office, adds that she feels “a programme like this needs to become normalised. This group really show that anything is possible and they are joy to work with and support.”
Aisling Heffernan, Integrated Healthcare Area Manager, HSE Dublin South and Wicklow, further outlined that “since its establishment in 2019, the Memory Harbour Service has greatly enhanced support and engagement with service users and their families. This collaboration between the Memory Harbour Service, HSE Primary Care, HSE Older Persons and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council is beautifully credited and showcased through the ‘Fondest Regards’ collection. This example and continued integrated working across services in this area will promote the brain health and creativity of our people.”
The Harbour Playwrights will continue their creative journey later this year, with a new play in development exploring their lived experiences of memory loss, with the hope of creating greater understanding and reducing stigma associated with the condition.
Watch Roger and Anne with others outline their recent experience