What is a Memory Cafe?

A Memory Cafe is a wonderfully welcoming place for individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease, any other form of dementia, or other brain disorders. They are designed to include the care partner as well, for a shared experience. Additionally, it is helpful for people with all forms of mild cognitive impairment (MCI.)

Individual Memory Cafes focus on different things for a unique experience. You may find some are activities-based, while others focus on education. You might have one enjoying the connections of demographic-appropriate music and dancing. Others might focus on crafts and painting, while some facilitate informal conversation to create new friendships. Some simply guide the participants in mental exercises that foster reminiscing.

Some just enjoy each other’s company over a cup of coffee and talk.

There truly is something for everyone!

What a Memory Cafe is Not: Respite Care

While a Memory Cafe is beneficial for those living with dementia, it is also beneficial for their care partners as well. It is not a place to “drop off” your loved one for a while, but a way to enjoy activities with them as a break from the normal routine that you share.

A Memory Cafe is a safe and comfortable space where care providers and their loved ones can socialize, listen to music, play games, and enjoy other appropriate activities. They provide mutual support and exchange information. This by itself is valuable if for nothing more than to obtain information about additional resources.

They can simply enjoy the company of those with similar things in common.

It’s All About the Experience

Activities are varied, but tend to focus on topics that are apt to cause one to reminisce about times gone by. That “connection” to the past can be as comforting as it is medically beneficial. Emphasis is often placed on activities where humor can be a central part of the enjoyment.

You may find refreshments offered, or you may be a part of a pot-luck style gathering. In most cases, you’ll be able to obtain valuable resources from local support organizations to help you in your caregiving experience.

Generally, Memory Cafes are hosted and/or facilitated by health care and social services professionals to provide guidance and respond to questions or requests for resources. However, that isn’t a requirement. People who have a connection and understanding of the dementia community often facilitate Memory Cafes.

Mostly, a Memory Cafe is meant to make connections with those who are being challenged in a similar manner as you and your loved one.

The Memory Cafe’s Roots

With roots in the Netherlands, Dr. Bere Miesen, a Dutch psychiatrist introduced the Memory Cafe concept in 1997 as a way to break through the stigma associated with various forms of Dementia.

At that time, it simply “wasn’t discussed” and those living with the disease – and their caregivers – were suffering as a result.

The concept spread throughout Europe, to Ireland and England, Australia, and eventually to the United States. As the Memory Cafe concept evolved, it grew into a very open culture, including more than just those living with various forms of Dementia.

Many programs have been created in recent years for individuals living with all kinds of cognitive impairment. While Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common, individuals with all forms of Dementia, along with those surviving a stroke or traumatic brain injury, can benefit from the safe, welcoming and mentally stimulating environments of Memory Cafes.

Again, there really is something for everyone.

New Memory Cafes, with a diverse collection of focus areas, continue to open across the country as a natural response to a growing health concern. However, while many are being created, there is still a shortage of quality supportive resources due to the fast-growing nature of the growing dementia impact.

Starting Your Own?

All this may sound exactly like what you need, but you may not have one nearby. If that’s the case, you may be interested in starting a Memory Cafe for your local community!

How to Start a Memory Cafe

One of the most often asked questions we receive is related to either starting or promoting a new Memory Cafe. We decided to bundle up all our responses and give you a guide for starting a Memory Cafe in your local area.

Take this as your next step in helping others in your community!

How to Promote Your Memory Cafe

Envisioning a Memory Cafe, then getting it designed and organized so you can start operations is a lot of work. But there’s more work needed to get the word out. Offering a wonderful, dementia-friendly event on a regular basis is one thing – helping your community know about it is another.

There are many avenues for promoting your Memory Cafe.

Memory Cafe Activity: Memory Joggers

This is just one example of a fun, FREE engagement activity appropriate for individuals with cognitive decline.

Memory Joggers is a fun, engaging activity to enjoy with a loved one with early memory loss. Each one is a common phrase to read aloud, asking the player to provide the last word to complete it.

Visit Memory Joggers here on JADCOM Media to get yours!

Types of Locations

Memory Cafes take place in a wide range of venues. For example, they can meet at:

• Coffee Houses
• Restaurants
• Community Centers
• Assisted Living and Continuing Care Communities
• Galleries
• Libraries
• Museums
• Conference rooms
• Farms
• Just about any warm, inviting location!

While the ambiance of a location can certainly add a unique element to the experience, simple spaces can be very effective as well. It is as much a function of the participants and facilitators, as it is the physical space.

Valuable Business Model

Memory Cafes are good for people with cognitive impairment and their caregivers. They are also very good business for proprietors willing to make their space available.

For example, Memory Cafes do well in quieter environments, with moderate background noise and a more calm ambiance. An mid-afternoon session in a restaurant’s private dining area could be a very good fit. A restaurant owner could do a lot worse than to have a fun group of people benefit from the shop’s slow period.

Are you a gallery or museum curator and want to more fully utilize your facility? Seek out a Memory Cafe to conduct their activities during your slowest times.

Do you have a unique space that isn’t used all the time and you want to make very, very good use of it? You already know the answer, don’t you?

Visit our Good for Business page to see how you can benefit from having a Memory Cafe at your location.

Good For Business

There are many, many different types of venues that host Memory Cafe. At each one, the proprietors show the community they support the well being of those living with dementia.

Taking the effort to make an appropriate space available further expands the visibility for that establishment.

From libraries and museums, to restaurants and coffee shops, you’ll find interesting in enjoyable Memory Cafes.

Where to Find a Memory Cafe

Today, many, many Memory Cafes take place on a regular basis in the United States. While there is no argument as to the value this type of outing can hold, the challenge seems to be finding one close by.

Memory Cafe Directory

In 2016, JADCOM Media’s founder, Dave Wiederrich, started MemoryCafeDirectory.com! He decided to solve the problem of a centralized repository of Memory Cafe information not existing.

He found many individual news items online talking about a local Memory Cafe, its founders, its location, and its schedule. That was a good first step, but more was needed.

Next, he found many badly outdated so-called “directories” and “registries” that had a good idea, but didn’t keep the momentum going. Outdated information was implied with last update dates of several years prior. A better solution was needed to deliver real value to families.

Memory Cafe Directory grew to over 1,200 listings when the Memory Cafe Alliance acquired the domain name and created a new platform to live on the Dementia Friendly America website.

Memory Cafe Alliance and Dementia Friendly America

A group called the Memory Cafe Alliance is the result of the work of a planning group and process called EMC2 (Expanding Memory Cafes, Enhancing Meaningful Connections.)

To learn more about the plan and the wonderful work taking place to support this goal, visit the series of email announcements sent by JADCOM Media. (They are all recapped at the bottom of the Memory Joggers page.)

The new directory is available at MemoryCafeDirectory.com, just like always. However, now it is hosted by Dementia Friendly America (DFA), a non-profit that is dedicated to creating communities that are supportive, safe, and respectful of individuals living with dementia and their caregivers.

Through this collaborative effort, the Memory Cafe Alliance will enhance support for Memory Cafes nationwide. It will provide a comprehensive platform for sharing and discovering Memory Cafes across the United States, while providing additional resources to support Memory Cafe leaders and the sustainability of your work.

What to Read Next:

Here’s where to go next on JADCOM Media to get more information.

• How to Start a Memory Cafe
• Promote Your Memory Cafe
• Memory Joggers: A Fun Memory Cafe Activity
• Memory Cafes are Good for Business

Thank you!