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Hampden Football Reminiscence Event 2012

My reflections on Hampden Event 2012 by Jennifer Love (year 2 mental health student).

I have been volunteering with Easy Ayrshire Alzheimer Scotland since September and as part of that I have been involved in their football reminiscence group in Kilmarnock. Through going to these monthly groups I have met some wonderfully interesting men and their wives. When the session starts I find that there is a transformation in the men, they are not just a person with a diagnosis of a dementia at a group but a football fan debating with their peers about the best players, their favourite teams and the best goals. I find it amazing that something like football can bring together a group of people and evoke such passionate memories of the game they loved growing up and still love now. When we took the group to the second day of the memories fc conference at Hampden you could see the spark in their eye as they walked round the museum seeing the players they watched from the stalls and the team strips they respected so much. We had the pleasure of having a former player who is part of our group attend the conference with us. The respect and admiration of the other men we met at the conference towards him was amazing. He was treated like a celebrity and listening to the men speak about him, recounting the tales of how he played the game and his accolades I can understand now why he is in the hall of fame and so respected. Being involved in Memories FC and football reminiscence groups has helped me learn that even though these people have a diagnosis of dementia they still feel the passion and count themselves as a fan of the football team they grew up supporting.

Memories F.C. Hampden Blog by Lynn McBurney, 1st year Mental Health Nursing Student.
I was pleased when Andy asked for volunteers for this event; I’m really interested in the role that the Humanities can play in healthcare and mental wellbeing and was keen to see that in action. I’d enjoyed my first semester at university and was heading out to my first placement a few days after the Hampden event, loaded with theory, but also with questions about me, whether I’ll be a good nurse, good at applying it all with real people with real needs in a sensitive and non-intrusive way. 
I needn’t have worried. The energy and excitement on the second day of the Hampden event created an amazing atmosphere for relaxed communication with a great bunch of service users and their families and carers. I had a lovely day chatting with people about football and about themselves, and seeing how the museum resources fostered and supported the guys to connect with each other and with their own memories. I couldn’t have hoped for a better confidence boost just before starting my placement than spending a day in such generous, heart-warming company. 
One of the most powerful things that I was left with however was my own reminiscence of my Granda - Hughie - who was more interested in the horses than in the football, but could still talk a good game. Hughie’s been gone a long time now and it’s been a while since I thought of him and felt his absence. But if working with service users can gently unearth my happy memories of loved ones then I’m getting back more than I put in, a precious reward that affirms that I’m in the right place, doing the right thing.