Hi, I'm Rob Smith, an Occupational Therapist here at St Luke's.

People always ask me what occupational therapy is all about and I usually say it is about enabling independence and working with people to maintain activities and daily living.

We also use the activities we offer to help people feel emotionally well, which is an important part of the process.

I used to work with a Dementia Rapid Response team in Derbyshire and one of the things I did there was help people create their own books of memories.

It’s a really good way of validating the events of somebody’s life and I thought it would be something that St Luke’s patients could enjoy too.

It gives them a chance to tell their stories, the things they’ve done, the adventures they’ve had, the simple but significant things like where they went to school and when they were married.

They can supply pictures too and at the end of it, you have a simple document that is a really good communication tool, that can be very therapeutic too because the process of recalling things and putting it together, telling those stories gives a real sense of validity to their life.

I love it because you get to hear some fascinating stories about people’s lives in Sheffield, all those little stories that make lives interesting.

Some of our patients do have memory problems and might struggle with the day-to-day stuff but it’s always fascinating how they can remember stuff from way back.

#WeAreHospiceCare #HCW2023 #HospiceCare

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