Life History Factsheet

What is a life history?

A person’s past is a vital part of their dementia experience. Knowing about a person’s history helps you to support the person with dementia today.
A life history is more than just a series of life events. It includes:
Beliefs / values /religion / faith.
Likes / dislikes.
Important events, accomplishments and disappointments.
People – spouse, partner, friends, family, colleagues - and pets.
Favourite or significant places, important objects and possessions.
Talents/skills/capabilities.
Hobbies and interests.
Education and work life.
Habits.
How a person reacts to situations.

Knowing someone’s life history can reveal a person’s past routines which can be used now in their day to day care

Having information can help to explain a person’s current behaviour and actions.
Families, friends and other carers may have a better chance of understanding what a person may be trying to communicate. Life history may also reveal a person’s private language and words.
Sharing a life history can give a person the chance to talk about their past and feel involved.
Knowing a life history can give clues to a person’s strengths, what they are still capable of doing for themselves.

Start with the person you are caring for - if their memory allows. Recent history is as valuable as past history but the person with dementia will probably have better recall of older memories.
Collect the information in stages. A person with dementia may not be able to concentrate on one subject for very long.
Use prompts such as a particular era – when the person was at school, their first job/child. Find out what was happening in the country or locality at that time to give shape to the recollections – this is especially helpful if the person has great difficulty trying to locate old memories.
Using props from a bygone age to prompt reminiscence can be useful for gathering information and stimulating old memories.

You can use the person’s experiences and their ‘well known’ or esoteric words in your conversations with them.
Sometimes you can adjust how you care for the person to incorporate their old habits and routines.
You could give a person the chance to talk about their past in a postive way, share their memories and make conversation more meaningful.
The person may have a collection of old photographs that you could identify and label. This will allow you and others opportunities to chat about who is in a photo, where a photo was taken, holidays, places, pets etc.
Sharing life history with younger family members or carers can give them a different perspective on the person they see before them now.
Sharing life history with younger family members or carers can give them a different perspective on the person they see before them now.

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