Read to Care: Shared Reading groups and Quality of Life benefits for people living with Dementia

"Isn't if funny? We come in with nothing and go out with all these thoughts." - reading group member, living with dementia

The Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society (CRILS) at the University of Liverpool has published 'Read to Care', an evaluation report of a research project investigating the quality of life benefits and impacts for people living with dementia in shared reading activity across Merseyside.

CRILS is a research unit dedicated to investigating the effect of reading serious literature in the wider world, with a view to benefits in health and wellbeing, and is The Reader Organisation's research partner. In 2012, CRILS evaluated TRO's shared reading programme for people living with dementia with support from the Headley Trust - 'A Literature-Based Intervention for Older People Living with Dementia' showed that shared reading provided marked improvements in agitation levels, mood levels and concentration levels for participants, as well as improved social interaction.

Developing from this, TRO was commissioned by NHS North West to undertake a follow-up study of the effects of shared reading in Care Homes in Wirral. The aim of the project was to further investigate the impact engaging in a shared reading group activity has upon people living with dementia, adding to and supporting a growing body of anecdotal evidence.

In 'Read to Care', particular consideration is given to:

• the uses of powerfully emotional literature to trigger awakenings in people living with dementia;
• the value of literature in offering emotional experiences too often feared to be 'negative';
• the kind of memory that is stimulated by shared reading - different from working memory or from what is achieved through reminiscence therapy;
• the additional effect on relatives and carers

The conclusions and recommendations of the report show that shared reading groups significantly improve the quality of life of people living with dementia, as well as providing valuable benefit to care workers and relatives in encouragement of remaining human possibilities.

"Reading aloud when others are there to listen, the sense of being in a unified community, has been the privilege of Poets for millenia. And it works. The words - common to all, unite minds and the shared stimulus appears to have an uplifting group effect." - Melvyn Bragg (preface to Read to Care)

The report will be the focus of a presentation held at the University of Liverpool this November. Professor Phil Davis, Director of CRILS, will present findings from Read to Care, alongside one of The Reader Organisation's project workers who was involved in the practical delivery of the groups participating in the project. Anyone interested in dementia and the relationship between literature, health and wellbeing is welcome to discover more.

'Read to Care: Shared Reading Groups & Quality of Life Benefits for People Living With Dementia' with Professor Phil Davis is on Thursday 20th November, 6.00pm, at Lecture Theatre 1, Sherrington Building, Ashton Street (off Pembroke Place), University of Liverpool.

Cost: £20, including buffet supper.

For more information and to book your place, download this registration form, and return to Joan Scott in the University of Liverpool CPD team at iltcpd@liv.ac.uk or telephone 0151 794 5776.