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Life Story Work

Learning about someone’s life can give a real insight in to how somebody might be feeling. This knowledge then helps us to support someone in a more personalised way. It’s also a great way to develop a relationship and learn some fascinating things!

This page has top tips and resources to help you learn more about a person with dementia’s life story.

Knowing about the person and their past is the first step. Life story work is recognised as vital to person-centred dementia care. It’s a tool to get to know someone, and the better you know someone, the better relationships with staff, family and carers can be. A record of experiences, likes and dislikes is very useful when someone is moving between care settings or when different professionals are involved in a person’s care.

What are the benefits of Life Story work?

  • It can help people with dementia share their stories and enhance their sense of identity. This is especially useful when they are having difficulty in sharing this information themselves.
  • Life Story work can help encourage better communication and an understanding of the person’s needs and wishes. This can inform their care and ensure that it is provided in a positive and person-centred way.
  • It can help the person develop closer relationships with family carers and staff through sharing stories.
  • It helps family members develop a closer bond with the person with dementia, through sharing their stories.
  • It gives professional carers an understanding of the person’s life, and a better understanding of the person’s needs, allowing them to communicate with the person and care for them in the best way possible.
  • It enables professionals to better understand and engage with the person they care for.

What does Life Story work look like?

There are several ways that Life Story work can be practiced, and you can choose the format – or a combination of formats – that works best for the person with dementia. These include:

  • Books: this format is portable and can be easily accessible to carers and visitors. Keep it simple with photos and clear, easy-to-read text. Multi-colour and patterns can be confusing for people with dementia, so clear and simple with two contrasting colours is the best approach. It may be a good idea to laminate the final copy to protect it from damage. Many care settings have their own life story book formats so you may need to transfer the information into their template.
  • Collages: these are less adaptable as things change. But images work well to encourage reminiscing and can be useful for people in later stages of dementia.
  • Video recordings: are a good way to record visual information, such as family films and messages from the person with dementia to their family, friends and carers. They can also be added to, or amended as life changes.
  • Reminiscence or memory box: these can be particularly useful for people with sensory impairments, such as sight loss or perceptual problems; or for those people in the later stages of dementia, when touch or smell are relied on more to communicate.
  • Apps: there are a number of Apps (downloadable computer programmes for your phone or tablet), to help save and share photos and memories of special places; by marking them on a map, or playing video and audio. They’re simple to use and suitable for people in earlier stages of dementia.
  • Personal profile documents/one-page profiles: these are short versions of a Life Story often used in hospitals designed to help staff understand the person’s needs.

How to create a Life Story

When creating a Life Story, involve the person with dementia in the process as fully as possible. This makes the Life Story more likely to reflect the person’s wishes and preferences and encourages a sense of ownership. Talk together, help them where needed, and write or type the information together so they can see the story forming with you.

Go with the flow and let the person talk about an aspect of their life they’re most comfortable with. You don’t have to start at the beginning. Try taking one topic at a time so it doesn’t become overwhelming. Take breaks and complete the story at your own pace; it might take days, weeks, or months. Remember you can always add to it later.

If someone finds it difficult to communicate their life story, other family members and friends may be able to provide key information. You can also try to prompt them by using familiar photos of people or places.

Reflecting on our lives can be emotional so sensitivity is needed. Don’t be afraid of this but think carefully about what information the person would want to be shared.

Content of a Life Story

Good topics to focus on are:

  • Basic current information: name, age, where they live etc.
  • Significant relationships with family and friends
  • Their childhood
  • Working life
  • Significant places and life events
  • Holidays
  • Preferences with their appearance
  • Food likes and dislikes
  • Their routines
  • Music/TV preferences
  • Activities they enjoy/don’t enjoy
  • Pets
  • Music
  • General likes and dislikes

Try not to bombard the person with too many specific questions. General questions or opening up the conversation about a topic may be easier. For example: “Can you tell me about where you grew up?”

You can design a life story box/book/film/song in any way meaningful to the person with dementia however, if you are looking for a more structured template, The Alzheimer’s Society & Dementia UK have resources to print which can be found below:

Dementia UK: https://www.dementiauk.org/life-story-work/

This is Me – Alzheimer’s Society: https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-03/this_is_me_1553.pdf