Understanding the concept
What is PMEE?
Personal Meaningful Emotional Experience
PMEE stands for Personal Meaningful Emotional Experience. It is a way of thinking about — and looking for — experiences that hold genuine personal significance for someone living with dementia.
Participation is not the same as meaning
In dementia care, participation in activities is often recorded and celebrated. But participation alone does not tell us whether an experience was 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. Another may feel confused, uncomfortable, or simply present without any sense of personal significance. The activity was the same. The experience was not.
"Do not simply ask, 'Did the person participate?' Ask, 'What did this experience mean to this person?'"
The four dimensions of PMEE
P
Personal
Meaning is individual. What matters deeply to one person may mean very little to another. PMEE begins with the person — their history, their identity, their preferences and what holds significance for them specifically.
In practice
A former nurse may find deep meaning in a caring role — helping to fold laundry or comfort another resident. The same activity may hold no significance for someone whose identity was built around a different kind of work.
M
Meaningful
Meaning can come from identity, history, relationships, roles, values, familiarity, contribution or simply what matters to this person right now. It is not for others to decide what should be meaningful.
In practice
Meaning is not always obvious or expected. A person who rarely spoke may become animated when a particular piece of music plays. A person who struggled with group activities may find quiet, one-to-one conversation deeply meaningful.
E
Emotional
An experience does not have to produce happiness to be meaningful. Meaningful emotions may include joy, pride, comfort, belonging, curiosity, nostalgia, affection, achievement or calm — whatever holds personal significance.
In practice
A person may become tearful when looking at old photographs — not from distress, but from a deep emotional connection to the people and places they see. That emotional response is meaningful, even if it is not straightforwardly joyful.
E
Experience
PMEE is concerned with the person's lived experience of the moment — not merely whether an activity was completed. The emphasis remains always on the person experiencing the moment, not on the activity itself.
In practice
The experience of a walk in the garden may be meaningful because of the sensory connection to nature, the companionship of a carer, the memory of a garden from childhood — or all three. The walk is the vehicle. The experience is what matters.
"An experience does not have to be remembered in detail to have mattered in the moment."
Why does this matter?
An experience does not have to be remembered in detail to have mattered in the moment.
In dementia care, the value of an experience should not depend solely on whether a person can remember or describe it later.
A conversation, a familiar song, a shared activity or a quiet moment of connection may hold personal significance while it is being experienced, regardless of what can later be recalled.
PMEE therefore encourages us to pay attention to the experience itself: what appears to matter to this person, how they respond, what they communicate, and what evidence may suggest personal significance.
The aim is not to assume meaning, but to become better at noticing it.
What PMEE is not
Not a clinical diagnosis
PMEE is not a clinical assessment tool or a diagnostic framework. It is a way of thinking and observing in everyday care practice.
Not a prescription for happiness
PMEE does not aim to produce happiness at all costs. It aims to create and recognise experiences that are genuinely meaningful — which may include a wide range of emotions.
Not a replacement for person-centred care
PMEE sits within person-centred care and offers a particular lens for considering personal meaning and emotional experience in everyday practice.
Not a validated research instrument
The PMEE Project is a developing practice project. The tools and frameworks shared here are practice-based and developmental. They are not clinically validated instruments.