Medical Affairs: Series 7: 4. Football on the brain

Scottish football ' remarkable ' gives new life to people with dementia, as discovered by a pioneering Scottish project.

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Football gives "notable" new life to people with dementia, as discovered by a pioneering Scottish project. As with all the best ideas, is the simplicity and effectiveness of the approach is so remarkable that it is incredible that nobody on the previously stumbled, and yet it happened during a conversation between a group of Scottish football fans. Michael White is the Falkirk Football Club historian and is a Director of a shelter. He discovered that old football pictures were a "powerful trigger" for fans with dementia. These stimuli opened discussions about memories of players and games and greatly reduced levels of anger and frustration with these men and women who participate in this reminiscence sessions.

He got the Scottish Football Museum, they contacted Caledonian University of Glasgow, and pretty soon the international medical community was aware of the discovery. The results are so rewarding that the idea is exported to Canada, with ice hockey provide the key to communication.

Professor Debbie Tolson is the Director of the University Centre for Evidence Based care for older people. They started with a review to see if this approach really worked. Her results were impressive and she describes this kind of reminiscence work as something that could "make a big impact". There are almost 25 million people with dementia around the world, with an estimated 4. 6 million new cases per year. This programme of the Observatory progress follows and evaluates the impact on the lives of those they are working.

Broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland, 10: 30 AM Sun, February 6, 2011 will be available until 11: 02 AM Sun, February 13, 2011 for the first time, BBC Radio Scotland, 3: 30 PM Wed, 2 February 2011 broadcast categories duration 30 minutes

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