An afternoon to remember: Belong Warrington residents celebrate Forget-Me-Not Day

Residents at Belong Warrington, enjoyed a craft session with volunteers from a local college, to celebrate national Forget-Me-Not Day, which encourages people to reminisce memories shared with loved ones.
Residents at the village were supplied with colourful craft materials such as paint, buttons and textured fabrics and together made a range of items, including felt flower badges and pictures, as gifts for family and friends. As well as being a creative and engaging activity, handling the materials acted as sensory therapy, that has been found to decrease agitation and restlessness, which can be common for people living with dementia.
The Forget-Me-Not event also gave residents the opportunity to share fond memories from their pasts; a form of reminiscence therapy that is particularly beneficial for people living with dementia, stimulating cognitive ability as well as being therapeutic.
A group of volunteers from Priestley College joined residents for the event, as part of their Health and Social Care course. Alongside spending time getting to know residents, Experience Co-ordinator, Lisa McLaughlin, will also be running ‘Dementia Friends’ workshops in the college to improve students' awareness and understanding of dementia in the community.
Lisa McLaughlin, Experience Co-ordinator at Belong Warrington, said: “Everyone at Belong Warrington really enjoyed celebrating Forget-Me-Not day with our themed art session and it was great to see the two generations getting on so well. The day has a really important purpose and encouraged residents to share stories about their friends and families, whilst they made some lovely crafts.”