Using our archive to help people with dementia

Peter Rippon, Editor, BBC Online Archive and Connected Studio on a range of new online tools we are launching to mark Dementia Awareness week around the UK.

​The BBC's interest in dementia is not altruistic. The number of people living with the condition is already approaching a million and rising fast. If you add in the numbers of carers, family members and friends who are close to people with dementia it is a sizeable chunk of our audience. It is our heartland audience too. The age groups most affected are some of the heaviest consumers of what we make.

The BBC also has a unique asset – its unique archive - that has the potential to help with dementia beyond just storytelling and programme making. As part of the BBC's plan to be more open and explore more partnerships, BBC Rewind, Archive Development and BBC Scotland teams have been looking at what might be possible with dementia experts and charities.

The results, two specific digital tools, have just been published on BBC Taster with the help of the Connected Studio digital innovation team.

BBC RemArc, or Reminiscence Archive, has been created by the Archive Development team with the help of experts at Dundee University and the University of St Andrews. It uses a selection of video and audio clips and images from the BBC Archives, designed to support reminiscence work with people with dementia, their carers and families.

The principle of Reminiscence Therapy is to assist people who have dementia to interact and converse in a natural way by stimulating their long-term memory with material from the past.

The Your Memories tool was produced by BBC Scotland. It re-uses the BBC Rewind ‘Your Story’ digital tool that creates a slideshow of photos, music and BBC programme clips based on simple data about a person’s age and likes.

Your Memories emerged from a Connected Studio innovation event held in Glasgow last year. Dementia experts were mixed with BBC editorial and technology and archive specialists to develop and pitch potential ideas to each other.

​There is something really profound about how dementia and memory loss affects us. It cuts right to the core of who we are as people. It can be hard for carers and relatives to really connect with a person whose short-term memory is de-graded.Tapping into long-term memory can make it possible once again for them to enjoy interacting with others, through their stories. We hope the BBC’s archive, which hopefully contains many precious memories from our national story, can help that happen.

​Both the tools have been launched on the Taster platform to coincide with the main UK Charities focus on dementia in May and June. They form part of a range of more traditional TV, radio and online coverage. Anyone can use them and we are really keen for feedback.

The RemArc software will be available for free under an open source license, so that people can build their own reminiscence archives, either in UK, or reversion RemArc with new languages for use abroad.

We will also make the archive material featured in RemArc available for personal and educational use. We will also now be working the Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer Scotland and universities/other organisations to properly audience test and learn what we can.

Peter Rippon is Editor, BBC Online Archive and Connected Studio

• Find out more about the BBC Dementia Season to tie in with Dementia Awareness Week
• Visit BBC Taster