This week on the Disabilities Beat, we explore how Memory Cafes provide social spaces and connection for people who either live with a cognitive or memory disability or they love or care for someone who does.
Transcript:
Emyle Watkins: Hi, I'm Emyle Watkins, and this is The Disabilities Beat.
On a fall day in picturesque Jamestown, New York families gather in the National Comedy Center's cafe to hear a presentation. They enjoy donuts, coffee, and, most of all, each other's company. Everyone here has one thing in common. They either live with a cognitive or memory disability or they love or care for someone who does.
Rosemary Madejski: I'm staying with my daughter who lives here in Jamestown, and she was looking for things that I could do. And Jean here is my assistant, and so she seemed enthused to come with me.
Emyle Watkins: Rosemary Madejski was excited to relive one of her favorite shows, "I Love Lucy", at the Center in Lucille Ball's hometown. Her visit to the National Comedy Center was free of cost that day as part of their Memory Cafe.
Rosemary Madejski: I would like to see some of the Lucy reruns, because I used to watch the Lucy show all the time.
Emyle Watkins: Memory cafes have sprouted up across the United States in recent years. They're intentional spaces where the focus isn't on a diagnosis or treatment or anything medical. They're a break, a chance for people and their families to come together and have a relaxing, fun experience together.
Rosemary Madejski: It's been very nice. I mean, they're very organized, and they want to make sure that everything goes well for you.
Emyle Watkins: Sometimes, like at the National Comedy Center, the cafe is as simple as having a time where people can come to a museum or cultural center when there's extra staff on hand. Other times, memory cafes can be activities, exercise, creating art or music.
Sitting across the room from Rosemary and Jean was Rochelle Mole and her father, Clement Rossi. Mole is the center's chief financial officer.
Rochelle Mole: What sparked this idea with us even before writing the grant was we had a couple come in, and he's been caring for his wife with advanced dementia, and it really had limited communication, and he brought her through, and she's in the museum, and he said it was the most communication she's had in years.
Emyle Watkins: Mole understands the experience of being a caregiver firsthand. She cared for her late mother, who had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, before she passed. Now that the center has a memory cafe, her father and stepfather attend.
Rochelle Mole: When my dad came through one of the first times, and his caregiver was with him, he can be grumpy, and so when she said what she said in there and was watching the Carson Theater with him, he was laughing a guttural laugh, and that brought something to Christy that was just so valuable to her, to see a different side of him than sometimes what she sees more often at home.
Emyle Watkins: The National Comedy Center also encourages folks who cannot make the monthly time slot but still want to visit as part of the program on another day to call, and they will accommodate, recognizing that sometimes flexibility is needed when you have a disability. The center also has a variety of supports for different disabilities, as well as ample seating throughout. The National Comedy Center is one of 11 programs funded and supported by the grant-funded Exhale Memory Cafe Collective in Western New York. Other organizations in the area that participate include Art Park, the Buffalo History Museum, Cradle Beach, the Hispanic Heritage Council of Western New York, to name a few. But as Mole points out, it is significant to have this resource in Jamestown, which is about an hour and a half south of Buffalo.
Rochelle Mole: It is important, because they don't have a lot of resources. Obviously, we're one of the larger museums in the area. There's a lot of museums around, but not quite as many, as you say, like in the Buffalo area, so I think it's important that we bring these types of opportunities to our area as well.
Emyle Watkins: While limited studies exist on the topic of memory cafes, one out of Australia showed that while the programs have a positive impact on people living with memory conditions, more significantly, they benefit their loved ones. Mole has seen that impact herself.
Rochelle Mole: I think just allowing people to come in and create a different connection with caregivers, rather than only coming in and taking care of the individual, you need to create something outside of that, something that creates this connection for them outside of just, "I'm your caregiver." Let's go share laughter, and let's go share... Maybe we have the same comedic preference. But allowing them that opportunity outside of the specific caregiving role.
Emyle Watkins: You can listen to the Disabilities Beat segment on demand, view a transcript in plain language description for every episode on our website at btpm.org. I'm Emyle Watkins. Thanks for listening.
