The brand teamed up with creative agency JWT, therapists and rehabilitation experts to create the custom made ‘Smell a Memory’ kits on visiting nursing homes in Singapore.
The project includes bottled tailored smells branded as ‘Bedtime Stories’, ‘Mom’s Cooking’, ‘Prayer’ and ‘School Days’ that have been designed to provoke engagement and thus bring back family history, ethnicity, age and personal memories.
While regular aromas have been used to uplift moods in the past, this is perhaps the first time complex fragrance have been created to evoke emotional memories.
Scents can bring withdrawn patients back to life
On developing the kits, Givaudan's perfumers opted for ingredients relevant to Singapore, including herbs and spices from everyday dishes, Hainanese coffee, and incense used in local temples and other scents that reminded people of school, holidays and work life.
"It was found that the scents had the power to spark memories and emotions from their past, and was able to create uplifting moods and bring some patients out of themselves for a time.”
Once the kits had been completed by the perfumers, experts then tested them out in therapy sessions where they proved to be a powerful tool, sparking memories in some patients, and stimulating strong emotions in others.
Alzheimer’s and memory loss caused by dementia affect 35.6 million people worldwide and according to the Givaudan global fragrance director, David Boyd; “We are really breaking new ground here, this is a practical, hands-on, usable tool. And the response has just been outstanding.”
“Over time, patients become withdrawn and lose interest in food, activities and the people around them. A tool like this, that can awaken their senses and emotions, is critical to their emotional and physical health,” added Andrew Soo, manager from Soo’s Nursing home, where the tests had been carried out.
To date the project has been so successful that Givaudan now plans to extend the programme to other regions, while JWT aims to bring the kits to two of Singapore’s largest hospitals as a therapy service for elderly patients with conditions such as dementia.