Lindsay Baker, the Community Services Librarian at Wapiti Regional Library with the five kits geared to help Alzheimer's and dementia patients communicate with others. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Memory lane

A trip down memory lane: kits for Alzheimers and dementia patients available by inter-library loan

Jan 11, 2026 | 8:00 AM

When Lindsay Baker, the Community Services Librarian at Wapiti Regional Library, heard about reminiscing kits that help dementia and Alzheimer’s patients, she knew she wanted them for her collection.

Baker was at a conference when she heard about the kits and now has five of them available for borrowing thanks to a federal grant.

“As part of that grant, we planned to purchase what are called reminiscence kits, which are meant to help spark conversation with individuals with dementia or Alzheimer’s,” she said.

Each of the five Favourite Things Kits, as they are called, has a theme that is meant to appeal to different people.

Baker decided to start with the Handyman Collection, the Great Outdoors, the Farm, the Homemaker and Winter, given the general age category of most people with memory-related health conditions.

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Each kit comes in a clear backpack for east transport and has books, coated information cards and some interactive items to help with finger dexterity.

Inside the Farm kit for instance, there is a small black Labrador stuffed dog and booklets that talk about farm-related things like seeding and animals.

“We do have a largely rural population in a lot of our small towns which we serve, so the farm and the handyman were obvious choices and the homemaker is still a generational thing, where a lot of the people who are seniors now, likely would have been homemakers at some point in their lives,” she said.

The Homemaker Kit has magnets such as rolling pins and bags of flour that can be place on a magnetic board.

“Each kit comes with a DVD as well as photo cards which are tied to the theme,” she said.

They are set up to help interactions between the caregiver or helper and the person with the memory challenges.

“They come with directions and some conversation starters,” Baker said. “Thinks like an individual doing embroidery. You know, ‘Grandma or mom, did you ever do any embroidery? Did you do any handicrafts? Can you tell me about them?’.”

The kits are available to people with library memberships who can place a hold on the item. That includes staff members in a care home or other organizations working with the same type of patient.

Loans are generally for three weeks and kits can be sent to any of the 43 libraries in the Wapiti system through the inter-library loan system.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com