Lifetime Matters is a creative model of working, delivered through a Lifetime Matters book (which is completed by the client and staff member, alongside family members where appropriate) and an accompanying learning programme, initially designed to improve person centred care within older people’s residential care in Kirklees. It works on the premise that understanding a person’s life history and their current needs and interests leads to an offer of better, more responsive care.

The training programme for care staff involves upfront sessions on how to use Lifetime Matters as well as reflective practice sessions after a period of implementation and refresher and top up sessions for those more experienced.

Previous participants of Lifetime Matters have commented:

• "I just look at her different now, she’s just such a colorful person now, and in her past life"
  
  
• "I can appreciate more the outcomes of my own work"
  
  
• "There’s more of a friendship, a closeness in these books"
  
  
• "It is a joy to be able to find more detail that helps them enjoy their lives to the full and helps staff to understand the client more"
  
  
• "It has helped a family find more detail about their father before it was too late for it to be passed on and to remember things they had forgotten"
  
  
• "The more you know about that person and their life it helps in the everyday care you can give them"
  
  
• "It’s sad to say this, I’ve been here 2 ½ years, and I feel like I’ve got to know her more in that 30 minutes s than all the while i've been here"
  
  
• "Doing the book has given her behavior an explanation, now we understand it better"

Please contact us if you are interested in Lifetime Matters training.