Dementia and the Outdoors
Join Mark Stephen and Euan McIlwraith for the latest outdoor activities from Shetland to the Borders, plus the key stories for those who live and work in the countryside.
Ahead of Radio Scotland鈥檚 Dementia Awareness Week and World Alzheimer鈥檚 Day on Monday 21st September, we bring you a programme looking at the positive effects being in the outdoors and sounds out of the outdoors can have on people living with dementia.
We start with an interview that we recorded in 2016 with Ken Elkins from the National Audubon Society in the USA. He tells Helen about the positive effects of interacting with birds for people living with dementia and the programme he has set up in care homes to bring birdsong to residents.
Euan remembers the days before combine harvesters when he investigates a threshing mill in Aberdeenshire.
And we have an excerpt from this week鈥檚 Scotland Outdoors podcast which features David de la Haye. David is a musician, sound recordist and 'sonic explorer' who uses sounds he's collected from the sea to create musical compositions.
Paths for All promote walking for everyone, every day and everywhere. As part of that, the charity has worked on creating dementia friendly walks and outdoor environments. We find out more about the schemes live from Julie Twaddell.
Back in 2016 Susanne Powell contacted us to tell us about her Dad and his particular form of dementia which is called Lewy Body. Mark went for a walk with Susanne where she told him about how spending time outside helps her to cope with caring for him.
Our exercise recording this week comes from 成人快手 Radio Scotland presenter Bryan Burnett. Bryan is keen on yoga and he explains how it鈥檚 helped him get through lockdown.
Euan reflects on his connection to the sea. After thinking about his Dad who lived with dementia, he realises how much his memories are connected with the various sounds of the outdoors and how important they might become to him in the future.
And once again Euan has a mystery bird for us- does this sound bring back any memories for you and can you identify it?