Summary of findings from the My Life Today study

Background

People with dementia want to continue doing things that make them feel good. They have told us that they would like easy-to-use tools to help them check whether they are doing enough of the things that are important for well-being.

How we developed My Life Today

Researchers worked with a group of people living with dementia to develop the My Life Today booklet and a short explanatory video.

The main part of the booklet is a simple chart with spaces to write answers to these questions:

1. What makes me happy or helps me feel good?
2. How often do I want to do this

thing (that makes me happy or helps me feel good)?

3. Am I doing this thing often enough (yes or no)?
4. If ‘no’, what would help me do it more often?
5. What action could I take to make this thing happen?

The chart is repeated several times so that people can keep using it.

The study

We wanted to see whether My Life Today could be useful for other people with dementia, and based on their experiences, whether it could be improved.  

We asked 16 people with dementia to use it for 4 weeks. We then talked to them to find out about their experience of using it. If people said they wanted to carry on using it, we talked to them again a month later. We asked everyone whether someone had helped them to use My Life Today. Four people said yes, and we talked to the people who had helped them as well.

The people with dementia said they found it useful to think about things in their lives that they were doing or wanted to do:

• They felt more positive about what they were doing.
• They realized they were doing more than they thought, and that these things made them feel good.
• Some noticed difficulties they were having and thought about ways to overcome them.

Some of the people with dementia used My Life Today with their husband or wife to plan enjoyable things together. They said the booklet prompted pleasant conversations and helped solve problems.

Three things influenced how useful people found My Life Today:

• Whether they had any difficulty filling it in.
• Whether they had support if they needed it.
• Whether they expected My Life Today to be helpful.

The study showed that some people with dementia find My Life today helpful. People can use it by themselves, or with support. Couples can benefit from using My Life Today together.

Want happens next?

We have used what we learned from the study to make these improvements:

• A bigger space to write a list of things that make you happy or feel good.
• A suggestion to work through My Life Today with someone who knows you.
• Improvements to the wording of questions.
• Removal of the video.
• Better instructions about monitoring progress.
• More space to write.

The new improved version of My Life Today is freely available to download and print from here. It will be promoted to practitioners working with people with dementia. Next, we want to find out if local dementia services can embed My Life Today and other IDEAL resources into their practice. 

The research team would like to thank the people with dementia who co-produced My Life Today with us, and the 20 people who contributed their time to try My Life Today and to be in the My Life Today study.