Jane Fowler and colleagues found a new way to use the BBC’s archives to prompt conversations between families and carers and people living with Dementia.
'What drew particular praise was the deliberate inclusion of the voices of those with Dementia edited as little as possible'
Our event, Exploring Dementia, looking at BBC Scotland’s recent season on Dementia, was the start of a new conversation about the disease, very much seeking the advice of those with an in depth understanding of the condition, its complexity and its impact.
As Managing Editor, my role includes working as executive producer on BBC Radio Scotland features and major projects. Here I was working with two colleagues – Liza Greig and Tommy Weir - who are ionate about the public service remit of the BBC and how we can use our resources to offer practical advice and personal stories that help make a difference.
The season, Memories and Conversations – New Approaches to Dementia, ran for five weeks on BBC Radio Scotland, and was developed in close collaboration with Alzheimer Scotland and the University of the West of Scotland. It involved radio, television, online and our outreach cross-generational team, the LAB. It was the vision of Liza Greig, a radio producer in the Edinburgh Features team.
One new approach was to use favourite moments from BBC programmes as a way of starting conversations between families and carers and those with Dementia. All the archive used in the project and clips from the programmes are available on the BBC Radio Scotland website at Memories and Conversations.
Another approach was Your Memories, a pilot on BBC Taster where you type in your biographical details and up comes a slideshow of your life in film, photos and audio.
We wanted to get on this and the other radio and television content – discussions, documentaries and phone-ins on every strand in the schedule - and to learn from it.
Tommy Weir, Marketing Executive of BBC Scotland’s Diversity team, ed by the Diversity Board, devised and organised the event which brought together external organisations and BBC staff to discuss our recent content – and to suggest ways of working together to move forward to serve the sadly growing number of people in our audiences who are affected by the condition.
About 70 people attended, from many fields including health, reminiscence, carers, arts, sports, libraries and museums, local government and science, as well as staff from across BBC Scotland and BBC Outreach.
From the moment people arrived, there was a real buzz with everyone talking and keen to share their suggestions and discuss these with others.
For staff, it was highly valuable to understand what these organisations are doing in order to explore working together.
The to the season was very positive. What drew particular praise was the deliberate inclusion of the voices of those with Dementia who sometimes repeat themselves, sometimes stumble, and to edit these as little as possible.
The suggestions made on how we could develop and improve our content were immensely helpful. These included more programmes on the diagnosis of the condition and advice on how to live as well as possible with it, especially in the early years.
There was advice on language to be used – and avoided. During the campaign we had asked staff not to use the phrase – ‘suffering from Dementia’. As Anne Macdonald, who has a rare form of the condition which affects her virtual visual processing, said to us with emphasis, “I don’t suffer from Dementia. I live with Dementia. And I’ll fight to do as much as I can for as long as possible.”
We were also challenged to make sure our content reached as broad an audience as possible. Liza and Tommy spend as much time as they can working outside the BBC, listening to the experiences of others.
But bringing people together for such a lively session, chaired by Sally Magnusson whose mother had Alzheimer’s, allowed for a very honest and open conversation and left us feeling genuinely energised in moving forward.
There is so much to do.
For November, we are planning programmes and discussions on isolation, and the experience of this event has given us real food for thought as we start. We will work closely with many of those we have met at this event. We are truly grateful to all those who gave up their time to in.
