Story Work Research Articles

Stories about life narrated by people with Alzheimer's disease.

To explore how people with Alzheimer's disease present their life story. Life story work is a key concept in a person-centred care. An important aspect in understanding the subjective experience and supporting the identity of people with dementia is to listen to their life stories. A narrative design with interviews was used. Nine participants with Alzheimer's disease were encouraged to tell about their lives from childhood, adult life, to present life and about their thoughts on the future. The interviews were conducted between September 2010-March 2011 in the participants' homes, with their spouses present and were analysed with a method for analysis of narratives. Contentment, Connectedness, Self-reliance and Personal growth were identified as core dimensions in the participants' life stories and shown like threads throughout life, from childhood, adult life to present life. All participants expressed an overall contentment with life, and connectedness was related to their relation with significant persons and to be included in the local community. Self-reliance was expressed as a strong confidence in the own ability and an overall curiosity throughout life as a sustained quest for personal growth. It is important for healthcare professionals, who work with people with dementia, to understand that people with Alzheimer's disease can maintain an overall trusting and hopeful approach to life. It is also important to use life story work to enhance feelings of being connected to the world and thereby support their identity and sense of self.

Of Exile and Anxiety

Of Exile and Anxiety Aimee Bender (bio) Mikhail Iossel founded the Summer Literary Seminars program, which used to be housed in St. Petersburg, the former Leningrad of his childhood and young adulthood. I found his book of stories because I was invited to teach there, and I wanted to read his writing to find out more about Russia. The stories in Every Hunter Wants to Know are centered in the Soviet Union until this last one, “Insomnia,” which documents the narrator’s move to Boston after having been denied exit from the USSR for years. What I recall most clearly about the collection is how Russia is drawn like a member of the family. That to leave the USSR was to leave not just one’s actual family and actual friends, but also a country that digs itself into a person in both a beautiful and painful way. This story made the ideal closing piece for the book because it seemed to address both leavings at once—of people and place. How to find one’s footing outside a country like that? One that has smothered the narrator while also embracing him closely. The motherland. [End Page 84] When I read “Insomnia” years ago, I felt wrapped in it, the actualness of it. Anxiety. I knew what he was talking about. I had never been in the narrator’s exilelike situation, but I had felt that kind of claustrophobic paralysis. There’s a critical mass of isolation and displacement that builds in the story—in the flat and true statements and in the details: the terror of leaving his apartment, the piranha silently eating in a tank at night, the crowded streets of New York City, of Harvard Square, the unsettling pamphlets, the menacing homeless man, that redeeming roast-beef sandwich. The story felt, and still feels, so real to me. Something genuine is captured about fear of the new. What’s more, it’s captured messily. The paragraphs are often one sentence long. The details in those sentences are often told, not shown. The statements are sometimes really specific, sometimes not. But it is honest and alive; a reader is right there with the narrator, and no sentence feels false or invented or like it’s hiding. It has the feeling of a diary but it isn’t circular like most diaries—somehow the narration pushes forward, despite the ruminatory quality of the narrator’s worries. I move along with great interest, able to imagine what it would be like to find myself in a new country, surrounded by a new language, away from all loved ones, in a way I have not experienced through reading before. This is a Salinger-style I, who brings us in so close to his experience that he is saying lines like “I called a Russian friend of a good Russian friend of mine from home”—a detail that isn’t necessary, is too much detail if we’re going for only tight-knit crafty choices, but also is exactly what people say and hurls me into that moment. Sometimes I’m on a panel and the topic is: What is a short story? And we bat around some rules and beliefs about arc and movement and page length and characters changing or not changing. This story doesn’t follow standard ideas of what might make a short story work. The movement is looser and more capacious than many of our super-crafted workshop-style tales. This is a nomadic walk through a man’s experience, from inside out. It wanders, but there’s urgency in the words. Maybe that’s what they mean by immediacy. The words tremble a little, these fresh new words, these English words. [End Page 85] Aimee Bender aimee bender is the author of five books. The most recent, The Color Master, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2013. Her fiction has been translated into sixteen languages. Copyright © 2014 University of North Carolina Wilmington

HOW DOES PROVIDING AN ORAL HISTORY AT THE END OF LIFE INFLUENCE WELL-BEING OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE BEREAVED?

BackgroundOral history captures and preserves patients' voices and involves them in the process of producing their own life histories. A Macmillan pilot project has created five oral history services in...

‘The end as a beginning’: Life story work on an older adult in-patient dementia ward

The following is a reflection on my experiences of completing life story work on a hospital in-patient dementia care ward. I hope to share some of the rich qualitative examples of how life story work can be used to give people a sense of regaining their identity and feeling valued. I will reflect on the importance of life story work in improving the quality of life and wellbeing for older people as well as giving staff a sense of pride and meaning to their work. I will also reveal some of the challenges I faced in embedding life story work into the ward and how I overcame some of these difficulties.

O conto machadiano entre a tradução, a circulação cultural e as novas construções conceituais

By analyzing Machado de Assis’s short stories work and thought, we intend to point out relationships between translation, here understood as a mediation and cultural diffusion strategy, and the building of a broad concept of Latin American literatures. We also present an anthology of 30 short stories by Machado de Assis translated into Spanish and published in 2011 in Valencia/Spain, as part of this translation and research project.

Nomes próprios em Dom Casmurro: opções de tradução em inglês e francês

By analyzing Machado de Assis’s short stories work and thought, we intend to point out relationships between translation, here understood as a mediation and cultural diffusion strategy, and the building of a broad concept of Latin American literatures. We also present an anthology of 30 short stories by Machado de Assis translated into Spanish and published in 2011 in Valencia/Spain, as part of this translation and research project.

‘Remember when…’: exploring the experiences of looked after children and their carers in engaging in collaborative reminiscence

The background literature outlines the positive impact that life story work can have for children in care, but there is scant published research to support these claims and, to date, none exploring both carers’ and children’s experiences of engaging in collaborative memory work, which can form an important component of a child’s life story. This article explores the experiences of foster carers and looked after children in carrying out such work using the memory store approach, focusing on what their talk could tell us about how using this approach had affected the carer–child relationship, the child’s self-perception, aspects of the child’s thinking and learning, and their emotions. The participants were five foster carers and the four children in their care. Two to three months after a one-day training course for carers in using the memory store approach, semi-structured interviews were carried out with the carers and a board game session took place with each of the children to explore their views. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to guide both the data generation and its subsequent analysis. Carers’ and children’s talk suggested that using the memory store approach has a number of perceived benefits, emotionally, relationally and in terms of the child’s self-perception and learning. A memory store approach model was postulated on the basis of these findings. One of the conclusions of this research is that using the memory store approach (or similar) should be a statutory requirement of foster carers, not only because of the potential benefits highlighted through this research but also because of the ethical necessity to safeguard the memories of a child’s time in care.

A Simplified Technique for Evaluating Human CCR5 Genetic Polymorphism

To involve students in thinking about the problem of AIDS (which is important in the view of nondecreasing infection rates), we established a practical lab using a simplified adaptation of Thomas’s (2004) method to determine the polymorphism of HIV co-receptor CCR5 from students’ own epithelial cells. CCR5 is a receptor involved in inflammatory processes, which has been misused by some pathogens, including HIV, to enter host cells. As a result, a defective allele CCR5-Δ32 has been enriched in some populations. The interesting story and hands-on work with their own tissue absorbed students in this 2-hour practical.

Real Life Heroes in Residential Treatment: Implementation of an Integrated Model of Trauma and Resiliency-Focused Treatment for Children and Adolescents with Complex PTSD

Real Life Heroes (RLH) engages children and caregivers to rebuild (or build) emotionally supportive relationships, develop self-regulation and co-regulation skills, reduce traumatic stress reactions, and integrate a positive self-image through conjoint life story work. RLH includes psychoeducation, a life story workbook, multi-modal creative arts, and a toolkit to help practitioners implement National Child Traumatic Stress Network recommended components of treatment for Complex PTSD as a child and family transition from residential treatment to home and community-based programs. A case study and results from pilot studies highlight utility of the model for residential treatment and how RLH can help residential treatment programs implement evidence-supported trauma and resiliency-focused treatment including incorporation of NCTSN curricula to provide an integrated framework for practitioners, residential counselors, county case managers, educators, resource parents, home-based counselors, mentors, and other caring adults.

‘You have to be mindful of whose story it is’: The challenges of undertaking life story work with people with dementia and their family carers

Life story work is increasingly being used with people with dementia; this work offers a critical appraisal of some challenges that may be faced in practice. An in-depth case study analysis was undertaken to understand the experiences of people with dementia, family carers and care staff in using life story work in an NHS Mental Health and Social Care Trust. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, observation, conversations and field notes. Private memories were sometimes recalled by the person with dementia that were not for inclusion in any written product; enabling the person with dementia to tell their own life story could be a challenge; quality of the life story books was variable and; at times, life story work may be overused with the person with dementia. Services should not be deterred from undertaking life story work with people with dementia, but there is a need to adopt a planned approach to its implementation that includes facilitation, education and supervision.

Children's Narrative within a Multi-Centred, Dynamic Ecological Framework of Assessment and Planning for Child Trafficking

An ecological approach to understanding child abuse and working with separated children are not new concepts. This paper proposes a dynamic development of the model for use by front line practitioners that takes account of the movement and exploitation of children caught up in child trafficking, while recognising the primacy of children's narratives when information is difficult to obtain. Adopting a holistic planning and assessment approach utilising dynamic life story work addresses the realities of children's lives as they move around, with the potential for numerous social contacts and influences in home, transit and destination countries. The model recognises not only the physical journey and exploitation of the child, but also their emotional and psychological journey through exploitation and abuse, hopefully, towards healthy and safe outcomes. While such a model recognises the complexities of the lives of children on the move who have been trafficked, its major drawback for professionals is its complexity and the difficulty of obtaining, and making sense of information from the potentially numerous countries, situations and people children have encountered. Keywords: Human trafficking Language: en

Life story work – overcoming issues of consent and confidentiality

PurposeThis is a discussion paper which aims to explore issues of consent and confidentiality when using life story work in clinical settings with older adults with dementia.Design/methodology/approachThis is a discussion paper reviewing current research, policy, guidance from regulating bodies and government recommendations.FindingsLife story work can be used in clinical practice without violating consent and confidentiality clauses in mental health practice when used appropriately.Originality/valueThis paper provides insights overcoming issues of consent and confidentiality with life story work in clinical practice, reducing the challenges reported by staff. Clinical recommendations are offered to both support and empower clinical staff, enabling the full benefits of this person‐centred tool to be utilised.

Life stories and arts in child welfare: enriching communication

As narrative beings, we are surrounded by our own stories and other people’s stories. We are not necessarily fully conscious of these stories and they may not even be verbal; moreover, there is never a single version of a story. A negative story and stigmatised and damaged identities are easy to encounter in child welfare. To prevent exclusion and negative social inheritance are the major tasks of child welfare, but how to combat them? One remedy is enriching communication and a self-expression. In this article, we describe the theoretical literature that has guided our empirical project work in widening and deepening everyday communication in child welfare. The methods that we have developed are based on life story work and art-based activities. Improvements in narrative surroundings in residential care have guided our efforts over a 12 year period. We have studied the opportunities and possible roles that exist for art-based activities and narrative methods in supporting children’s coping, self-understanding and building up of self-capacity. We have also studied how the young people’s active participation in developmental work can produce new ways to obtain knowledge and understanding in child welfare. We have developed and promoted good practices to afford people working in the child welfare field with new opportunities and tools to improve professionals’ and children’s self-expression skills. A major result of these processes has been that the professionals felt that communication with children had moved closer to the children’s own experiences and emotions.

Bringing dementia strategy to life

Anne Kiney is a passionate advocate of life story work in dementia care

Complicated Grief in the South African Context: A Social Work Perspective

Dr Cornelia Drenth is employed by the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa in the capacity of Palliative Care Development Officer (Northwest Hospices). She has held a part-time private practice as a social worker for the past thirteen years (loss, grief and bereavement, trauma counselling, Road Accident Fund). Her field of expertise is social work in health care, with specific emphasis on loss and bereavement as well as conducting workshops in this regard. Her knowledge base includes palliative care, people living with disabilities, oncology, neurology, rehabilitation, and trauma management. Cornelia Drenth completed a Ph.D. (SW) from the North-West University (Potchefstroom, SA). She co-authored five published articles and contributed to The Legal Aspects of Palliative Care, published by HPCA. Alida Herbst (Ph.D.) is an associate professor and chair person of the Social Work Division in the School for Psychosocial Behavioural Sciences at the Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University, South Africa. Before entering academia, she worked as a medical social worker in 1 Military Hospital as well as a number of private hospitals in South Africa. She specialises in trauma and bereavement work and presents a number of workshops called the Comfort, Care and Compassion series. She has a particular interest in life story work and co-authored a book with the title Memory Work: Telling Your Story through Life Maps. Her research focuses on the psycho-social health of individuals, groups and communities. She has a keen interest in the community engagement activities of the university and is the chairperson of the Student Rag Community Services (SRCS) Advisory Board. The SRCS annually engage 3,000 student volunteers in ninety-two community projects focusing on early childhood development, youth development, support to vulnerable adults and a number of outreach projects. Alida firmly believes in creating co-constructed learning environments whenever she teaches. The ripples-on-apond model of teaching and learning offers an excellent framework for experiential learning and reflective practice which allows her to integrate narratives and art in her teaching on basically all graduate levels. It is particularly valuable when topics like ethics, the professional self, beginner’s practice and stress management form part of the teaching curriculum. She has presented a number of papers on related topics at both international and national conferences and has published a number of national and international scholarly articles. Prof. Herman Strydom was previously a staff member of the University of Pretoria and has since 1987 been appointed as associate professor and since 1999 as professor in Social Work at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. He was also the Subject Head for Social Work for fourteen years until the end of 2012. His interest regarding subject matter focuses on HIV and AIDS, gerontology, crime and research methodology. He is author and co-author of 104 accredited journal articles, while he is also author and co-author of forty-four chapters in various textbooks and related publications. Herman Strydom is a NRF-rated scientist on level C3. He was involved in presenting eighty-two papers at national and eighty-six at international conferences.

Introduction: David Foster Wallace and “The Long Thing”

At the time of his death September 2008, David Foster Wallace had published nine books. Three were story collections (Girl with Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Oblivion) and four were works of nonfiction, either the form of collections of journalism and reviews (A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Consider the Lobster) book-length works focusing on a single topic (Signifying Rappers, which he co-wrote with his friend Mark Costello, and Everything and More, a study of Georg Cantor and infinity). The remaining two books were novels. Wallace's posthumous publishing record is very similar, with the 2011 publication of his unfinished novel The Pale King flanked on one end by the chapbook edition of his Kenyon Commencement Address, This is Water, and, on the other, by a forthcoming book of thus-far uncollected essays titled Both Flesh and Not (due out November 2012). All told, he published as many story collections, essay collections, and works of nonfiction as he did novels, which constitute merely one-fourth of his published output. So why devote not one but two issues of Studies the Novel solely to Wallace as novelist? Given these numbers--as well as the fact that he never finished The Pale King--it is reasonable to wonder why critics and readers don't regard Wallace as primarily a short story writer, perhaps a journalist and story writer who also published novels, similar to the way one might view, say, his contemporary Lorrie Moore, whose ratio of story collections to novels matches Wallace's exactly. The obvious explanation is because one of those two-and-a-half novels is the 1079-page encyclopedic behemoth Infinite Jest, the bulwark atop which so much of his burgeoning reputation rests. But the centrality of Infinite Jest Wallace's published oeuvre also obscures the degree to which Wallace thought of himself as primarily a novelist, and not a jack-of-all-trades who happened to have produced one big, generation-defining classic, though he was certainly haunted by this latter possibility. Unlike the vast majority of his contemporaries, most of whom honed their craft by subjecting streams of apprentice short fiction to nitpicking critique undergraduate and graduate writing workshops, Wallace started out as a novelist. He wrote his sprawling debut novel, The Broom of the System, more less total isolation while still an undergraduate at Amherst College. In 1985, at the age of 23, he submitted the five-hundred-page manuscript as one of his two undergraduate honors theses, resulting a double summa cum laude. Only then did he turn to short fiction. Most of the stories that make up Girl with Curious Hair he produced while pursuing his MFA at the University of Arizona Tucson, where he earned both the ire of his professors owing to his refusal to kowtow to the then prevailing ethos of Raymond-Carver realism and the envy of his classmates due to his having secured a publisher for his undergraduate creative-writing thesis before completing his first year at the program (see Max 39-71, which covers this crucial period Wallace's life). While his peers were still gearing up for the arduous task of producing a competent debut novel, Wallace was merely taking a breather before his next big book. From 1989, when Girl with Curious Hair first appeared, to his final days, Wallace was buried a novel project. The stories he produced during those tumultuous two decades were either diversions from the novel-in-progress, exercises undertaken to overcome writer's block, test runs for themes and techniques that he was developing for the novel project occupying him at the time. In a private letter to me dated May 2002, (1) he explains that he began writing Infinite Jest, or something like it, as early as 1986, and returned to it again 1988 and 1989. None of it worked, was alive, he explains. But then in '91-'92 all of a sudden it did. Similarly, Michael Pietsch, Wallace's long time editor at Little, Brown, explains his Editor's Note to The Pale King that Wallace began work on that novel almost immediately after finishing Infinite Jest 1994 (see Wallace v). …

Tell it like it is: Using life story work for some anxieties

Anne Peake is an Educational Psychologist working for Oxfordshire County Council. Her professional interests are safeguarding children, children in the Looked Apter system/adopted, attachment difficulties and autism. She has produced a booklet on Life Story Book Work, copies of which can be obtained by contacting her directly.

Benefits of increasing skills in the care workforce in recognising end of life in dementia patients

Delivery of End of life care for dementia sufferers in any setting can be very varied with an undue emphasis on a medical and pharmacological model of care. Planning for...

A story to tell.

WHILE ON a third-year placement with an early onset dementia team, I delivered a therapeutic intervention called 'life story work'. The initiative uses a biographical approach to caring for people with dementia, giving them the opportunity to talk about their life experiences. It involves recording, reviewing and evaluating an individual's past and present life, with the aim of using their life story to benefit them in their present situation.

I am proud of my contribution to a patient and his family’s care

While on a third-year placement with an early onset dementia team, I delivered a therapeutic intervention called ‘life story work’.