Get help for those suffering from dementia all boxed up

To mark Dementia Action Week, residents at 1,000 communities and care homes across the UK are receiving multi-sensory memory boxes from health and beauty retailer Boots

- BY MATT NIXSON

Dementia has a direct link with memory and, as those living with the illness experience a loss of cognitive functioning and memory loss, it can be upsetting.

With around one million Brits living with dementia, Boots has partnered with academics from the University of Surrey to create 1,000 multi-sensory memory boxes filled with familiar objects and distinctive smells to be sent to care homes and communities across the UK for Dementia Action Week this week.

They are designed to help rekindle memories for patients and are accompanied with free online resources for those at home, and an in-store Boots Dementia Friends service. The boxes are filled with objects intended to evoke memories and foster conversation between patients and their loved ones or carers.

They are a valuable way to preserve memories, express emotions, and provide comfort. Each contains objects designed to feel recognisable from times gone by, including items donated by Boots team members, partners and suppliers.

Contents typically include toiletries and soaps, while cough medicine or bath salts can help those affected remember times they looked after themselves or others.

The boxes also feature items with familiar sounds like the click of a powder compact or camera to bring those suffering into the present.

Other bathroom objects can include shaving brushes, hairbrushes, lipstick and flannels, through to items with distinctive smells - like lavender bath salts and rosehip oil and clothing such as hats and ties.