To care for people we need to care about them, to care about them we need to know who they are. To know who they are now, we need to understand their past.Good communication creates good care and this drives everything I do. After a long, design career, my mother's experience of Alzheimer's disease was the impetus to try to improve the quality of life of older people living with dementia and their carers. I created reminiscence conversation Many Happy Returns Chatterbox cards to connect younger people with older people with dementia more enjoyably and meaningfully, through shared stories and memories. The cards can be found in 10,000 family homes, care homes, hospitals, day centres, memory cafés and libraries across the UK. (Winner, Best Activity National Home Care Awards 2019) In 2010, I developed a transformative communication method, the REAL Communication framework for care to help carers to understand how memory, cognition, empathic engagement, listening and life story skills impact a person's wellbeing. (Gold Award, Performance Learning Awards 2014)I now teach, encourage and promote good communication in regular interactive REAL Communication workshops for SCIE (Social Care Institute for Excellence), care homes, local authorities and CCGs. The workshops deliver attitudinal changes which in turn, help to deliver better relationships, wellbeing and self-esteem for old and young alike. Care workers have said the workshops ‘should be part of all mandatory training’.In a regional social care project in Wales the workshops have helped improve carers' skills in order to support customers with dementia to live independently in their own homes for longer – and by building staff resilience, reduced turnover and burn-out. • Partner, Warwick University / Turing Institute: Creating Time Sensitive Sensors from Language & Heterogeneous User-Generated Content.• Core team member, My Home Life • Member, CQC Co-production group, DH Quality Matters Board• Visiting lecturer, City University School of Health Sciences * Volunteer, Re-Engage