In earlier centuries, becoming aged would, for most people, be something to be held in dread. Unless one had private means or a secure family then old age was a sure route to the punitive workhouse and the onset of inevitable pain and disability.

Advances in medicine generally, the advent of geriatric specialities in the 1940's and wider availability of health care and welfare services have not only increased the length of time that people are active and mobile, but also the numbers of people living or spending time in institutional or 'care' settings. Professional carers have also become more concerned with the overall well being of those in their care. A training manual for care assistants illustrates this when it instructs: "You have to relate to people - to understand their psychological, emotional and social needs, to help keep mind and body active... caring happens in all sorts of ways. It's an ongoing process - stimulating, chatting, listening sympathetically, nursing, reassuring, helping."

Until recent years it was generally considered that to reminisce was not a 'good thing' and that looking back, reflecting on and talking about times gone by, led to unhealthy introspection, a lack of confidence in and unawareness of the present. The tendency was to associate reminiscence with abnormal ageing and mental ill health.

From the 1960's onwards, a number of trends started to come together until by the 1980's there was not only acceptance that there is a value to reminiscing, but a very enthusiastic embracing of reminiscence and related activities by those who work in hospitals, old people's homes, community and day centres - anywhere that older people meet in groups. Reminiscence has been incorporated into the work of occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists, psychologists, nurses, auxiliaries, care assistants, social workers, community workers, teachers, adult education organisers, librarians, museum staff, disability organisations, voluntary organisations, art galleries, artists, musicians, dancers, writers, teachers, drama groups and a myriad of hobby therapists, activities 'organisers', and others with exotic titles whose concern, in one way or another, is the welfare of older people.

The 1980's not only saw 'reminiscence group' or 'recall' appear formally on timetables of activities in homes and hospitals, but the growth of a number of organisations set up especially to promote this work with conferences, training programmes and even a specialist magazine.

In the UK now the value of reminiscence work in its broadest sense has been endorsed through incorporation into practice by the National Health Service and local authorities, by arts, community and heritage organisations; providers of residential and nursing care and major charities such as Age Concern. It acts as an accessible context for meaningful activity and interaction.