Lifeview Residential Care, a provider based in Victoria opened the first ever dementia-focused café to foster support and appropriate education for people with dementia in their areas of service.
The café is named The Rosemary & Time Café which was launched on Tuesday at the ConXion Cafe. The said location is also the provider’s aged care home in Cranbourne. The opening featured different speakers, specialist, activities and music to cater to patients and the people who are involved.
The Rosemary & Time Café is one of the planned dementia cafés of Lifeview. These planned cafés are going to be established in different areas where the provider homes can be found. Aside from providing wider opportunities for the community members affected by dementia and their relatives, the cafés will also offer refreshments and entertainment.
On the opening day , introductory sessions, discussions and ice breaker activities were done for the community. The café also offered coffees and cakes between a local family and Lifeview personnel who directed the event.
Madeline Gall, the incumbent CEO of Lifeview told that she was happy in finally opening the community-based service for Cranbourne residents. She also told that she recognized the importance of dementia cafés in other places and pointed out that it is necessary to cater services locally.
According to Ms. Gall, through the Rosemary & Time café, Lifeview would be able to give extra assistance, education and support for individuals with dementia and the family members of those individuals.
She added that the type of service that thecafé could provide may be the response to social isolation and offer alternatives in handling the condition at home.
She also said that going to a café like the Rosemary & Time café could be the starting point for individuals to access services and share experience. According to Ms. Gall, cafés are venues for social interaction and exchange that may improve not only the well-being of the patients with dementia but also their respective carers.
The goal of the cafés is to give soft introduction to support services regarding different issues such as nutrition, falls prevention and respite services.
The cafés are done every second Tuesday of every month will feature Stephen Milsted, the hospitality manager of Lifeview that would talk about nutrition for people with dementia.
The next café is planned to open in Wheelers Hill, September of this year and to be followed by Emerald and Chelsea next year.
