Therapy aims to take you back (From Penarth Times)

Therapy aims to take you back

A UNIT at Llandough Hospital has launched an appeal for local memorabilia from the 1920s and 1930s, to help with a new treatment known as "reminiscence therapy."

Jo Evans, a therapeutic activities nurse on the East 7 Ward at Llandough Hospital, said: "We are looking for items from the pre-war years, such as newspaper clippings or household items - anything really that serves as a reminder of that period.

"We use them as a stimulus to get patients talking about their younger years and help them reminisce. It's often the case that elderly people have good long-term memories, but poorer short-term ones.

"The aim is to increase patients' sense of self-worth by getting them to remember the past and talk coherently about it. A way of making them feel better about themselves."

East 7 is an acute care medical ward specialising in the care of the elderly.