By Richard Kaufman
Sentinel Reporter
Like a key opening a vault, certain smells can elicit memories of years gone by. The distinct smell of a summertime barbecue, freshly cut grass or popcorn at the movie theater can bring people back to a time and place in their lives and spark conversation.
After dealing with the loss of her mother to a dementia-related illness and seeing her mother-in-law become stricken with the same disease, Greenwich resident Ruth Sutcliffe wanted to tap into the olfactory memory to help those affected by Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“There’s music therapy, art therapy. Why not smell therapy?” she said.
Using her 30-plus years of experience in the fragrance industry, Sutcliffe first began to brainstorm ideas two years ago. When her mother passed away last year, Sutcliffe put her plans into action.
“After my mother died and knowing about the sense of smell—it triggers memory and such—I thought if there’s anything I can do to help a certain portion of the population, whether it’s a family member or whether it’s triggering a memory in an elderly person, I want to do that,” she said.
Enter the Essential Awakenings Smell and Memory Kit, the United States’ first commercial smell-based memory care product, which launched publicly last month.
Using Sutcliffe’s motto, “reaching to memories through the sense of smell,” the first edition of the kit includes six different smells, or “hyper-smells” as she calls them: grass, chocolate, mint, pineapple, cinnamon and jasmine.
The scents, which are alcohol free and manufactured in the United States, are meant to be rolled onto the paper blotters provided and then smelled.
The sense of smell is stored in the most ancient part of the brain, called the limbic system. Humans build up their olfactory memory over the course of a lifetime and can recall memories associated with certain smells that might not come out otherwise. “We might not smell that smell for a long time,” Sutcliffe said. “But when we do, [the memory] will come back.”
Sutcliffe has voluntarily given smelling sessions at several area senior care facilities, such as Atria in Stamford, The Greens in Greenwich and Hebrew Home in Riverdale, N.Y., and hopes program directors will use the kit to engage and stimulate their residents in the future. The sessions usually last 30 to 45 minutes.
During the sessions, Sutcliffe asks participants to express what they’re smelling. “Is it fresh? Is it floral? Is it fruity? Is it green? Does it take you back to anything?” Sutcliffe said. “They’ll try to guess, then I’ll give them clues.”
Sutcliffe includes clue cards to help participants stimulate their brains and encourage conversation.
“A lot of times you go into the facilities and they’re watching TV. [The kit promotes] engagement, and you have to keep the brain as activated as possible,” Sutcliffe said. “Engagement in conversation and the stimulation of communication is important. So [the kit is] a tool for families as well as assisted living facilities to give them a game. It’s a guessing game. A memory game.”
Sutcliffe said the volunteering experience has been very rewarding.
Recently, Sutcliffe said, a woman smelled the scent of soap, and it reminded her of her husband. “She said, ‘Can I hold onto this smell?’“ Sutcliffe also noted that the scent of lilac is a major talking point at smelling sessions because it’s prevalent in gardens. Chocolate is also a big conversation starter, because “Who doesn’t love chocolate?” Sutcliffe said her favorite interaction came last year at Atria, when she finally convinced a man named Joe to join a smelling session after he previously watched in his wheelchair outside the circle.
After smelling the scent of chocolate, Joe said, “I want to date a woman who wears this.” Shortly thereafter, he proceeded to tell Sutcliffe that he once dated a celebrity named Barbara Hershey. When Sutcliffe asked what fragrance she wore, Joe exclaimed, “Chocolate!”
“Joe came out,” Sutcliffe said. “He enjoyed himself. His true spirit came out.”
Sutcliffe said that the kit is an important tool for building awareness of Alzheimer’s and dementia, but it can also be used to raise awareness of the importance of the sense of smell.
“If you think about it, we wake up, we see the sunshine, we see what ever else is around us. We have our breakfast, we taste, we feel. Sometimes we don’t pay attention to the smells around us,” she said.
In order to keep up that awareness, Sutcliffe tweets out a “smell of the day” on her twitter account @scentguru.
Sutcliffe said she’s developed about 30 different smells, which include apples, lavender and vanilla, and hopes to release more editions of the kit later in the year; the kit can be purchased on her website thescentgurugroup.com. She also hopes to expand her reach by introducing the kit to children with special needs as a way to enhance communication.
Sutcliffe has submitted her business plan to the Women’s Business Development Council in Stamford for the InnovateHER 2017 competition, which focuses on products and services that women create that are beneficial to women and families. “Women for the most part are the caregivers,” she said.
Finalists will be chosen by the end of July, and a winner will be chosen by September.
But Sutcliffe said she just wants to help families and better the lives of all people who are directly dealing with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“It’s been fun and very rewarding,” she said. “If I can enhance lives in any way, I’m happy about that.”
