National Museums Liverpool

Presentation by:  Carol RogersExecutive Director Education and VisitorsNational Museums Liverpool

Who we are• Founded in 1851• Established as a national museum in 1986• The only national museum in England outside 

London• Seven iconic venues• Museum service for Liverpool and Merseyside• The region’s largest cultural organisation• National responsibility• International remit

National Museums Liverpool

Our Mission

We change lives and enable  millions of people from all  backgrounds, to engage with our  world‐class museums.

The House of Memories promotes the need and value for compassion, respect and dignity in care to achieve better health and wellbeing, and support for people living with dementia

The approach is the first of its kind in the UK enabling museums, health care and housing providers to work together to deliver an imaginative and accessible ‘whole community’ dementia awareness experience.

Dementia in the United Kingdom

•Over 800,000 people in UK diagnosed with dementia

•Financial cost of dementia to UK is over £23 billion

•Only 40% of people with dementia receive an early diagnosis

•In less than ten years the number of people with dementia in UK will reach 1 million

House of Memories•To date more than 5,000 participants in Liverpool, Bury, Salford, Sunderland, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leicester and Nottingham

•Externally funded by Dept of Health and local health and social housing partners.

•Content designed to enable greater understanding of the value of a person’s history and life experience

•Activities include an interactive training day and new resources for settings

The Memory Toolkit

A Bespoke Museum Guide

The Memory Tree

The Memory Suitcase

Key Outcomes for Participants •Confident to try new approaches with those their care for.

•Demonstrable shift in their cognitive and emotional understanding of dementia and its implications for those effected.

•Enhanced capacity to assess their own attitudes and performance to cultivate an appropriate care relationship.

•Majority believed that their knowledge, skills and access to resources to carry out memory activities in settings had increased significantly

“Its about caring for them and the  life they once had, as well as caring  for the condition and the effect it has  on them”

Participant 2013

“The House of Memories is an exceptional project…. It is fantastic that the cultural sector is involved in work on dementia; it is a great collaboration. . . The work is critically important in supporting our drive to create more dementia-friendly communities.”

Norman Lamb MP: Minister of State for Care and Support 2013

My House of Memories 2014

A digitised memory app for people with dementia, their families and carers.

The Value• To create a legacy for

House of Memories

• To support older people’s access to new technology

• To tackle social isolation with aging communities

Who is it for?

• People living with dementia• Carers and families• Isolated older people• Networks supporting older  people

The Commissioning Process• Core aim to produce

a dementia friendly product

• Creation of an innovative and inclusive design brief

• Appointment of external digital design agency

User Led Design • Co designed with people

living with dementia and their carers

• Collaboration with Innovate Dementia (Liverpool John Moores University)

• Partnership with Mersey Care NHS Trust - Mossley Hill Memory Group

My House of Memories• Includes hundreds of inspirational ‘living

history’ museum objects.

• Multi-sensory experience: music, sound effects and videos

• Easy to use design - touch screen controls

• Activities to do together

• A ‘read aloud’ option for people who prefer to listen

• A toolkit for carers with additional memory activities

Digital Content

• 112 Museum Objects• 328 Images• 27 Background Music Themes• 22  Background Sound Effects• 23  Movies (6 for social care training)

Stripped back design

Choice of activity

Personalisation

Intuitive design

Audio captions / large text

Subtitles

Carers toolkit

How do we think it will be used?• With families including 

younger children• Day centres• Residential care 

settings• Sheltered 

accommodation• Hospitals and day 

wards

FILM

My House of Memories 2014

User AnalysisUK launch 22 May 2014

• 260 Downloads• 272  Users• 197 iOs• 72 Android• 918 Sessions: 252 UK, 15 USA,

1 Cyprus, 1 Japan(29% new, 71% returning users)

User Analysis What did they do on the app?

• 321 Created a profile• 337 Activities• 272 Browsers• 159 Played videos• 113 Searched options• 34  Donation clicks

User AnalysisMost popular screens:

• 937 About the app• 717  Object browser• 301  Carers toolkit• 254  Memory tree• 207  Memory box• 178 Working with people’s memories

Most popular objects…….

How will we circulate and market?

• House of Commons  launch (2014)

• Regular older people  museum celebration  events

• House of Memories membership  programme

Future Developments •Integrate House of Memories into mainstream health strategy  and policy making

•Increase funding for House of  Memories

•Donate campaign for My House  of Memories

•Explore European museum  partnership

•AND new activities for people  living with dementia and older  people 

Meet me at the Museum, When I Was Little and Happy Older People