Project Journal

It began with a piece of music. A resident who had been withdrawn for several weeks — who rarely spoke, rarely made eye contact, who seemed to have retreated somewhere we could not easily reach — began to hum along to a song that was playing in the background. Then to sing, quietly, under their breath. Then to look up and make eye contact with the carer who was with them.

It lasted perhaps three minutes. Then it passed, and they returned to wherever they had been.

But something had happened. Something that mattered. And I found myself asking: what was that? What made that experience meaningful to this person, in that moment? And how would we know if we had created the conditions for it to happen again?

Those questions are what the PMEE Project is trying to answer. Not definitively — I do not think definitive answers are available. But carefully, honestly, and with genuine attention to the person at the centre of the experience.

In many care settings, activity participation is recorded as a measure of wellbeing. Someone attended the music session. Someone took part in the reminiscence group. Someone joined in with the exercise class.

These records are not without value. But they tell us very little about the quality of the experience — about whether it was personally meaningful to the person who took part.

Two people can attend the same activity and experience it entirely differently. One may feel engaged, recognised, connected to something that matters to them. Another may feel confused, uncomfortable, or simply present without any sense of personal significance.

The activity was the same. The experience was not.

PMEE asks us to look beyond participation — to ask not just 'did this person take part?' but 'what did this experience mean to this person?' That is a harder question. It requires more careful observation, more thoughtful reflection, more genuine knowledge of the person. But it is the right question.