Reminiscence groups for people with dementia and their family care-givers: pragmatic 8-centre trial of joint reminiscence and maintenance versus usual treatment

Reminiscence groups, run by professionals & volunteers, which use photographs, recordings & other objects to trigger personal memories are probably the most popular therapeutic approach to working with people with dementia, but there is little evidence for their effectiveness. The inclusion of family carers in groups with people with dementia has generated informal evidence that this joint approach improves relationships between people with dementia & their carers, and benefits both. REMCARE involves a rigorous evaluation of this approach. Pairs of people with mild to moderate dementia & their carers within 8 centres, both urban & rural, in England & Wales will take part in this pragmatic 2-arm randomised trial. They will be allocated at random between the intervention group who will attend joint reminiscence groups, meeting weekly for 12 weeks and then continuing the reminiscence work monthly for a further 7 months; and 'usual treatment'. To compare the effectiveness of these approaches, 10 months after recruiting the people with dementia we shall ask them about their quality of life and their carers about their psychological distress. Secondary outcome measures include a simple measure of the quality of relationship between patient & carer, completed by both, and a measure of 'autobiographical memory', the specific aspect of memory that should respond to reminiscence work. To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of reminiscence groups their costs & consequences will be analysed. The target sample size is 400 pairs completing the 10 month assessment, requiring around 576 pairs to be recruited, involving 24 treatment groups (each with 12 pairs participating). Three groups will be run in each of the 8 participating centres, which include Wales, London, Bradford, Hull and Manchester.