‘Memory cafés’ take aim at elder isolation, dementia concerns
6th February 2017 · 0 Comments
By Sandra Larson
Contributing Writer
(Special from Bay State Banner/New America Media) — On a drizzly November day, the Boston Center for Youth and Families Grove Hall Senior Center, at the border of Boston’s Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods, offered a warm and lively gathering place for area seniors.
Seated around long tables or still dishing up plats of salad, chicken, fruit and home-baked blueberry cobbler, about 20 elders — some accompanied by caregivers, some on their own, some chatty, others silent — were greeted cheerily by staff members of the senior center and the city’s Boston Alzheimer’s Initiative.
A program of short video clips began. The seniors chuckled at the predicament of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon disguised as women chorus members in Some Like It Hot. They marveled at footage of Neil Armstrong stepping onto the moon and at the virtuosic tap dancing of the Nicholas Brothers in the 1943 film Stormy Weather. A slide show of Americana accompanied by Paul Robeson’s deep voice singing “The House I Live In” brought wistful nods.
Respite in the Familiar
The monthly lunchtime gathering is one of a growing number of “Memory Cafés” across Massachusetts and the U.S. that aim to provide a safe, respectful, enjoyable and social respite for people experiencing dementia or anyone concerned about potential memory decline.
“I want to keep my mind,” said Four Corners resident Dora Vaughan, a first-time memory café guest. “I see other people gone already.”
Carl Baty, 64, is a former air traffic controller from Philadelphia who moved to Dorchester when he met his wife, Arnetta, a few years ago. Besides attending memory café events, he volunteers with the city’s Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Friends of the Codman Square Library and other organizations.
“It’s good to stay active,” said Baty, looking sharp in a crisp suit and tie. “It’s good to stay connected.”
Memory cafés are new to Boston, but the model was developed in the 1990s in Holland, and over the past decade has spread across the United States. The first Massachusetts café started in 2011 in Marlborough, and now there are “50 and counting” statewide, according to Beth Soltzberg, director of the Alzheimer’s/Related Disorders Family Support Program at Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Waltham. The first Spanish-language café opened recently in Lawrence.
In 2014 Soltzberg formed the Percolator, a network offering support and training for Massachusetts memory café organizers, including a toolkit for starting café programs and a statewide café directory.
In some areas they are called Alzheimer’s cafés, but memory cafés are not Alzheimer’s education sessions or support groups. A 2005 evaluation of memory cafés in the United Kingdom observed that the café setting provides “a safe space in which to ‘re-story’ the experience of dementia.” Organizers say café participation can open a path to starting difficult conversations about dementia.
“The point is to diffuse fears and the idea that you’re being judged and evaluated,” said Patricia McCormack, director of the Boston Alzheimer’s Initiative of the city’s Elderly Commission and a major force behind the Grove Hall café. “It’s people from your community, meeting in your community, to be of assistance to each other.”
Isolation a Health Risk
Typically, community-based and reflective of neighborhood culture, memory cafés can play a key role in combatting elder isolation, which the AARP Foundation has termed a health risk as well as a social issue.
While a group of seniors may share an age cohort, their cultural experiences may differ widely. Just about anyone over 60 may recall where they were on the night of the first moon landing or the day President Kennedy was shot may, but it can be tricky to identify the right film clips, music, foods or holiday traditions likely to strike a chord for everyone.
In Brookline, where there is a large Jewish population, the film Fiddler on the Roof is a big hit, Brenner said. For the mostly African American audience at Grove Hall, her mix of clips included Paul Robeson and the Nicholas brothers. At Lawrence’s Spanish-language memory café, Soltzberg said, organizers make sure the food and music are relevant to the Caribbean origins of the elders and their multigenerational family members who accompany them.
“The health risks of prolonged isolation are equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day,” warned AARP Foundation President Lisa Marsh Ryerson, speaking at the Gerontological Society of America’s annual scientific meeting in November. Her organization is studying and tackling isolation through its Connect2Affect project. Eradicating social isolation is one of the 12 “Grand Challenges” identified by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.
“Isolation is one of the things that make the disease [of dementia] grow,” said McCormack. In her work with the Alzheimer’s Initiative, she has observed how hard it can be for older adults or their partners to admit there may be a problem or even to go out in public if memory decline become evident. Memory cafés provide a place to mix with other people who may be experiencing similar issues and fears in a positive atmosphere, she said, “where the cup is half full and not half empty.”
The November program at Grove Hall was led by Dee Brenner, ARTZ program manager for the I’m Still Here Foundation, a Woburn-based organization that develops and delivers inclusive programming for audiences with cognitive challenges.
Before and after each video clip, Brenner offered a little food for thought about the clip’s theme or performers. Avoiding yes-or-no questions or anything that might feel like a quiz, her method drew out attendees’ recollections and feelings.
“Rarely does a clip not spur some kind of dialogue,” said Brenner. “It’s not just ‘Oh, Casablanca, what a wonderful film’.”
From Roller Skating to Mars
Conversations at this café ranged from recollections of train travel and roller skate keys to the prospect of Mars exploration to frustration at today’s divisive political climate.
As attendees said their goodbyes, Federica Solomon lingered, a crochet project-in-progress on her lap. She took up the craft recently through a class at the Grove Hall Senior Center and is working on a hat and scarf. The 81-year-old Dorchester resident takes art and computer classes there as well.
“I try to keep my mind working,” she said. “I don’t want my brain to sleep on me.”
Sandra Larson wrote this article for the Bay State Banner with the support of a journalism fellowship from New America Media, the Gerontological Society of America and the Silver Century Foundation.
This article originally published in the February 6, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
