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W.Inside a plastic bucket dotted with perforated holes is a scented cloth. From there arises a fog capable of evoking a person's deepest and often happiest memories.
Since the seventies, the aroma manufacturing company AromaPrime has supplied nursing homes with these “aromatic cubes”, tools used in the art of olfactory therapy. It is a program in which aromas are smelled and then discussed, with the aim of starting a conversation and triggering feelings and experiences from the past. And for those suffering from dementia, olfactory therapy could also be a valuable tool to achieve sustained comfort and a feeling of security and warmth.
Liam Findlay has been working as a theme scent consultant since 2018. His job is to capture your desired scents as accurately as possible, even if, on paper, they are a little unusual. “I once had a resident desperate to remember what it was like to be a fisherman,” he recalls with a smile. Luckily, Findlay also offers scents for horror-themed attractions and thought a pungent, fishy scent he already had at his disposal might do the trick. “That someone would find joy in smelling a box that would make most people gag made me laugh,” he says, “but it was exactly what I was looking for. It transported him directly into a fish market.”
Smells, according to dementia expert Dr. Kamar Ameen-Ali, can greatly affect the functioning of our minds. “Episodic memories are memories of past events in our lives, like the day you got married or graduated,” he tells me. “They rely heavily on contextual cues, which may include certain sounds or smells associated with when certain memories are encoded. This means that when these contextual cues are encountered again, they can trigger the memory.”
For people with dementia, the ability to form new memories of episodes is increasingly complicated, which is why invoking memories through smells is often so important. “Encountering certain smells can help people living with dementia remember something,” explains Dr. Ameen-Ali, “in the same way it does for people without dementia. “However, this is likely to only be useful for existing episodic memories and not for the formation of new ones, as this function is unfortunately impaired in dementia.”
Loveday, a care home in Kensington, London, runs daily olfactory therapy sessions with residents in its care, in a program developed with the Geller Institute of Aging and Memory at the University of West London. Joshua Allen, a horticulturist, also hosts a weekly garden club at Loveday, where items such as fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers help residents remember or feel comfortable in a form of natural olfactory therapy.
Scent cubes mean we have more flexibility in what we can recreate. Unlike organic materials, we can try to recreate very specific things, like the conditions on a boat in the 1970s, for example.
Liam Findlay
“Sometimes people don't want to leave their room,” he says, “but as soon as they do and smell the familiar smells of the garden, it makes them want to stay.” Allen begins each session by serving cups of fresh mint tea to the residents, to get their senses flowing, before beginning the rest of his tasks. At the end of the session, he and the residents have harvested the vegetables growing in the residence's garden to prepare lunch. “My sessions are incredibly intense in smell and taste, and as tactile as possible,” she explains. “Everything I plant is non-toxic, so it is safe if ingested, and I make sure there are as many scents as possible in the pots and beds. I even make sure the plants are pleasant to the touch.”
The fragrance initiative at Loveday was initiated by Daisy Slavkova, the house's general director. She is so enthusiastic about olfactory therapy that the home even has its own “perfume butler” system, where staff visit each resident with a shiny mirrored tray containing a selection of pre-chosen scents. Moods are instantly lifted. “It's about harnessing the connection between fragrance and memory,” says Slavkova. “We also take members shopping to select new perfumes for the tray.”
Findlay says he has been commissioned to create scents that evoke charcoal fire, baked bread, pear drops and even caramel, and that tobacco is one of the most requested scents for nursing homes. However, that number may decrease as successive generations age. “It will be interesting to see what smells resonate with younger generations 50 years from now,” he adds. For young people currently addicted to vaping, it is not ruled out that they will request watermelon or grape aromas once they reach old age.
The brain's ability to link smells to memories is deeply rooted in science. Dr. Ameen-Ali explains that the “olfactory bulb” in our brain translates a smell as a type of information, which is then transmitted to other parts of our brain. “It goes to the amygdala, which has a role in processing emotions, and then to the hippocampus, which is responsible for processing memory,” he says. “Given that there is a close connection between the structures in our brain that process smells, emotions and memories, it is not surprising that smells can retrieve memories.” [later on] – particularly if they were strong emotional experiences.”
Scents are also increasingly used in the funeral sector, with scents being a common part of keepsake boxes created in tribute to those who have recently passed away, and even displayed during the funeral itself. “It's a very personal experience for a family to visit a chapel within a funeral setting,” explains funeral home director Chantal Carr. “So it's often good to include subtle things like smells to make the visit as calm and comforting as possible.
When working with grieving families, she and her team like to ask for as much information as possible about the person who recently died: their hobbies, their jobs, their passions. Jam tarts and garden sheds are just two of the scents she has infused into keepsake boxes. And when she does community work, she likes to combine scents with old objects to create memories. She remembers that residents with dementia were given dolls along with a scented bucket filled with the scent of baby powder, to restore the memory of having had a newborn child.
Although most would assume that nothing can beat the fresh smell of the garden or fresh herb clippings, Findlay points out that manufactured scents may have additional benefits. “Scent cubes allow us to have more flexibility in terms of what we can recreate,” he says. “Unlike organic materials, we can try to recreate very specific things, such as the conditions on a boat in the 1970s. The oils are also so powerful that they last a long time and people can continue to turn to them.”
For Findlay, her work is also increasingly personal: her grandmother resides in a nursing home and also suffers from dementia. “Memories are the building blocks of our lives,” he says. “Although the aroma only provides temporary comfort, it is a magical and incomparable tool.”
