Daily Sparkle

The Daily Sparkle is a daily reminiscence newspaper for people living with dementia and the elderly. Designed to be a stimulating and inspirational resource, it is used in over 6,000 care settings throughout the UK, and is the country's most used resource for the frail elderly and people with dementia. It features a variety of reminiscence content, with regular 'recalling the past' columns, such as 'On This Day' and 'Do You Remember?', and covers numerous products, brands, cultural icons, music, cars, people and day-to-day miscellany from the last 80 years or so.
History and background
Founded in 2009, The Daily Sparkle was created after founder Chris Harding went to visit a friend of his who had become ill and went into a nursing home. When visiting him, he was distressed to see his normally active friend, together with a room full of others, sitting in a comatose silence, while staff went about fulfilling their daily tasks.
Within two months, Harding had left his job and was focusing fully on how he could create a stimulating, enjoyable and fun daily life experience for older people in care.
Initially, Harding started working in care homes presenting activity sessions, called 'Everyday Miracles', which featured a variety of music, quizzes, exercises and singalongs, while also studying Reminiscence Therapy with Bernie Arigho at the Reminiscence Centre in London. However, after two years, Harding became frustrated that his team would only be invited to present its Variety Hour sessions once a month, and was concerned about what was being done to entertain and stimulate residents in the meantime.
In looking for ways to provide inspiration and enjoyment every day, he visited homes in Australia, New Zealand, America and Europe and eventually came up with the idea of a daily reminiscence newspaper, a customised and personalised resource, which focused on including "old news" listings to encourage reminiscence, brain games for mind fitness such as puzzles, quizzes, stimulating questions and entertainment. Harding says: "I believe passionately that the elderly and those with dementia deserve the absolute best. In their later years it is vital we work as hard as we can to keep their minds active and engaged and ensure their daily lives are filled with stimulating, enjoyable and interesting experiences.”
The Sparkles are published every day, while a monthly magazine also brings together content from the month with new activities and ideas.
Audience
The Daily Sparkle is targeted at the elderly, especially those with dementia, for whom memory, reminiscing and familiarity of the past is reassuring. It is widely used in care home settings, as well as NHS hospitals and day centres, with carers reading the newspapers and creating activities around the Sparkle content. In addition, individual subscriptions mean the Sparkles can be used by family carers at home.
Content and topics
Content in the Sparkles is brings together the little details from life over the past century, using pictures, words and music to spark memories and discussion. Current events - such as a general election - are also used as a way to look back and recall past similar events. The magazine is apolitical and has a non-biased approach to all topics.
Four regular columns are: 'Today in History' which features major events, both worldwide and UK based, and the births and deaths of key figures in the worlds of politics, culture, sport and the arts. The Way we Were features a look back to how things were in the past, going on holiday, fashion, school, work, relationships, money etc; Do You Remember features products, brands and cultural items that are not so common now, with background history and personal experiences; Over to You features readers' letters and pictures with memories and recollections from the past.
These columns are followed by a quiz and a popular song with missing words to be filled in. All content is accompanied by relevant pictures.
The monthly Sparkles feature a series of topics relevant to that month, as well as activity cards centered around a specific theme, such as gardening, animals or fashion. There are questions for carers to ask, suggested games and activities to do, pictures to look at and accompanying music on a CD.
Writers and editors
The Sparkles columns are created by professional writers who have been trained in writing for reminiscence. Writers are generally in their 70s so to a great degree they write from personal experience. The Editor of The Daily Sparkle is Fiona Harding, the founder's wife.
Related products
In addition to the daily newspaper, the Sparkles each come with Carers' Notes, which provide ways to take the content further and provide extra information and background on the topics. The Sparkles also come with music and reminiscence CDs, DVDs. The Daily Sparkle company regularly runs competitions, and also offers practical training for activity co-ordinators. It is also a big advocate of the 'whole home approach' which encourages all staff at a care home - including cleaning and domestic teams, administrative staff, gardeners etc to engage with residents and spend time with them.
Harding himself has trained as a Dementia Friends Champion with the Alzheimers Society, is currently working to create a Dementia Friendly Community in Totnes, and is a member of the South West Dementia Partnership Network. He is a regular judge on Dementia Care Awards panels and has been interviewed on radio several times.
The Daily Sparkle has also sponsored the Dementia Congress Awards for the past three years.

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