I know from the memoir books that some people prefer a hardcover book as more durable, and I wondered whether that might be true for visitor and guest books as well? Yes, it has taken me a while to get this happening, but at last I have the books uploaded, and ready to go! So these are hardcover versions of the most popular visitor books…
What are these visitor and guest books about?
They’re not just a ‘name and date’ entry. The whole point is for visitors to make it clear who they are (old colleague, grandson?), write a few lines about the visit, and key things they talked about, say if they brought anything or took anything away, then finally leave any special messages or the date of the next visit. You can see what I mean in this example:
Who are they for?
I call the visitor and guest books ‘dementia-friendly’, but that’s not the only use. They’re for anyone in residential care or at home, who is likely to have visitors, but might have problems remembering who came, what they talked about, or what they brought.
So this might mean someone living with brain changes, but also someone recovering from surgery, or from a stroke, or taking meds that make them sleepy, or living with disability or chronic conditions that affect concentration. The visitor can write in the book themselves, or the book owner can do their own writing after the visitor disappears.
Benefits of a visitor book
I love getting feedback on these books, because the reviews always talk about the pleasure a loved one has in re-reading the entries and reliving the delight of the visits.
It’s also such a relief for care partners to know who has visited, to know who left the grapes and where the photo album has gone (when someone has taken it to scan to digital). My dear mum often had a hard time recalling who had left the flowers in her room. I was so lucky that my dad could keep track, but that’s not the case for everyone.
Practical details
The interiors are the same, but the books are slightly bigger in size than the original soft cover books. That’s because the closest hardcover size available is 8.25 x 11. (Soft cover guest books are 8 x 10 and visitor books are 8.5 x 8.5.)
The new hardback books are available in the UK and in the US, but alas not yet in Australia (unless you pay massive postal charges). I’ve created the most popular two cover styles for each book, to cater for different tastes, and I hope they are useful to someone, somewhere!