Alzheimer-Netherlands organizes so-called Alzheimer cafés in many places throughout the country. These are meetings where people with dementia, informal caregivers of dementia patients, professionals and volunteers who work with dementia patients, family members who are concerned because they have a ‘not right’ feeling about a family member and other interested parties meet. In summary, these are evenings for everyone who is affected by dementia in any way. The organizers of the café often offer a thematic evening where, in addition to information, there is also plenty of room for questions and discussion.
Alzheimer’s and dementia
Alzheimer’s cafés are not only aimed at patients with Alzheimer’s disease, but at all patients suffering from a form of dementia. Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, but there are many forms of dementia besides Alzheimer’s disease. The Alzheimer Café therefore explicitly focuses on patients and those around them with a form of dementia.
Cafe
Not everywhere in the Netherlands does the word café have an inviting sound to make you want to visit in a very motivated evening. In some regions of our country, people sometimes use names other than café, for example salon or meeting point. There is of course nothing wrong with the name café in itself. Originally a café is just a coffee house and there were already in the 17th century and café is French for coffee. For many, however, a café is a pub where people drink beer because later pubs also started calling themselves cafés. But in any case, whether there is an Alzheimer’s café, Alzheimer’s meeting point or an Alzheimer’s salon, the content does not differ. In recent years, a number of Alzheimer’s teahouses (Turkish and Moroccan) have also developed. In total, there are approximately 230 Alzheimer’s cafés active in the Netherlands.
Fixed formula
The concept of Alzheimer’s cafés was devised in 1997 by psychogerontologist Dr. Bère Miesen. The evenings follow a fixed formula. Visitors are welcome half an hour before the start of the evening. They are welcomed by a hostess or host and offered a cup of coffee or tea. Many visitors use this first half hour to catch up with well-known fellow sufferers.
This is followed by an introduction with an interview by a moderator with an expert. This could be someone with dementia, an informal caregiver, children/grandchildren of a person with dementia or a professional such as a geriatrician, general practitioner, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, notary or any other professional. But of course there is always a relationship with dementia.
After about half an hour there is a break where there is room to talk to fellow sufferers and you can also speak informally with professionals and you can also visit the always present reading table where you can view and/or take with you a large amount of information material. .
Source: Ton Ebben
After the break, the attendees will discuss the theme discussed, led by the discussion leader, and the visitors will exchange information and personal experiences. When the evening is closed by the moderator, there is still plenty of room for visitors to chat with each other, visit the reading table, speak with the professionals and this is often taken advantage of. People are often left with questions that were not asked during the evening and they can also ask for advice informally. The atmosphere in an Alzheimer’s café is informal and relaxed. This greatly helps to break the taboo surrounding dementia. Many people in the cafés also experience that they are not alone.
The organisation
The Alzheimer Cafés are organized by working groups of Alzheimer Nederland together with at least three other organizations that are in some way involved with the target group of dementia patients. In addition, the members of the working group consist of volunteers with personal experience in dementia or professional experience. You can also be asked to join the working group in a personal capacity.
The important task of the working group is to ensure the substantive programming of the evenings. This is often ten per year and the minimum is eight times per year. In addition to the substantive programming, the working group provides the discussion leader and is responsible for all organizational matters including press publications, printing and distributing flyers, posters and programs, the preparation of the evening with the experts, fundraising to pay for the evenings and all other matters. associated with the organization of the café evenings. The working groups are accountable for their activities to the regional department.
Breaking taboo
In recent years there has been more and more publicity about dementia. That is a good thing because many people are affected by this disease. Every year, 13,000 people in the Netherlands receive this diagnosis from their doctor. In July 2015, State Secretary Van Rijn sent a so-called letter to the House of Representatives about this. In this he makes 16 million available for projects to make the Netherlands dementia-friendly. This is very important because dementia is still a taboo. Many people do not know how to deal with someone around them who is affected by this disease. And that very often places the person with dementia and the informal caregiver in social isolation or an environment where they are avoided, such as in shops and other public places. It has been mainly the Alzheimer cafés that have been doing groundbreaking work here for many years now to remove dementia from the taboo atmosphere. The fact that the government is now going the extra mile is a very good thing.
