Retro makeover project helps care home residents recall their past

Residents at a care home in Prestwick are being taken back in time after their dwellings were given a 1970s makeover.

With black and white photographs on the wall, brick-a-brack filling the shelves and ornaments lining the fireplace, visitors to the Berelands Care Home could be forgiven for thinking they had stepped back in time.

But the retro room has in fact been designed to get the elderly residents reminiscing. The makeover is part of an ambitious plan to aid the treatment of patients with dementia.

As well as the living room, the care home has also installed an old-fashioned cinema showing classic films.

Pearl Campbell is here most days visiting her husband Billy.

She said: “Its fantastic, the detail. You always see something new. It gets him talking, he sees things he remembers.”

At a cost of just £150, it took a year to take the rooms back in time.

Berelands’ Derek Lennox explained: “The handyman and I scoured charity shops and were creative.”

He added that the experiment had seen many of the home’s residents open up and talk about their history as the retro rooms help them remember their past.

The project is ongoing, with plans to turn every corridor into a historic Glasgow street, complete with street names and door numbers, making it a home from home for residents.