GOALDen Memories

The project brings together researchers in the humanities and gerontology at the University of Stirling with the Scottish Football Museum, a leading co-ordinator of sporting memories, to deliver innovative solutions for the delivery of digital content for reminiscence work with older people, some living with dementia.

Recent research by the applicants addressed the need for innovations in digital design for sport-based reminiscence with older people. Generating Older Active Lives Digitally (GOALD) was a three year project funded by the ESRC as part of the UKRI's Social and Behavioural Design Programme for the Healthy Ageing Challenge. A key outcome of the research was the creation of a developer toolkit for organisations and companies to respond to the needs of older people to live active and more connected lives. Innovations for sport reminiscence were included in the toolkit, which focused on the use of bespoke short-form video and piloted by the Scottish Football Museum through the GOALD Challenge Fund, which was subsequently evaluated for its efficacy. The benefits of using themed digital content for reminiscence were viewed as 'game changing' and the challenge is now to develop this to scale for wider use in community contexts, the care sector and in the home.

The Museum co-ordinates Memories Scotland in partnership with the National Library of Scotland and Alzheimer Scotland and Scottish local authorities. Memories Scotland deliver reminiscence activities and guidance for 550 groups across Scotland. The museum support the delivery of group reminiscence and one-to-one reminiscence through an extensive network of local, regional and national partners.

Developing and strengthening older people's 'connectivities' - their links with community, resources and meaningful activities - is a key part of supporting healthy ageing and reducing health inequalities in later life. Memories Scotland meets the challenge of caring for an ageing population head on, but faces its own challenge of delivering sustainable resources for reminiscence activities.  The GOALD project directly focused on the use of digital design to deliver products to enhance older people's participation in health promotion activities.

The aims and objectives of the project are:

1) Implement the interdisciplinary research of the GOALD toolkit for reminiscence to develop innovative digital content to meet the needs of Memories Scotland and their partners.

2) Create up to forty new digital reminiscence packs based on themed audio-visual and archival material designed to resonate with the needs of sport-based reminiscence facilitators and participants.

3) Produce online training and guidance on the use of the digital reminiscence packs.

4) Conduct an evaluation of the implementation of the digital reminiscence packs and training to enhance future delivery by Memories Scotland.

The project will produce innovative and scalable solutions for the delivery of meaningful reminiscence resources, easily accessible on the Memories Scotland digital archive, available to view on tablets and smart phones enabling the material to be viewed at bedside (particularly for NHS hospital groups and in hospices) as well as on larger screens. The digital content can also be repurposed for use by older people at home with carers.