Dementia Cafes
About The Dementia Cafe
The Irish Dementia Café Network was officially launched on the 17th of September 2020. This network brings together the 21 existing dementia cafes, across 15 counties. These cafes are an important community resource for people living with dementia and family carers. They are a key part of the dementia post-diagnostic pathway. The dementia cafe provides an informal way to meet others living with dementia and to meet health and social care professionals. With constraints on social gathering as a result of COVID 19, many of the Café’s have gone online, hosting regularly virtual café’s meet-ups following the same principles and ethos of the café model.
Find out more about the Irish Dementia Café Network.
How to set up a Dementia Cafe
Engaging Dementia has launched a manual "How to set up a dementia cafe". This manual provides guidance on how to set up and run a dementia cafe. It includes information and resources, as well as signposting to organisations and websites for further information on dementia. The information in this booklet draws on available evidence, input from cafe co-ordinators and the Irish Dementia Cafe Network’s Expert Advisory Panel.
Irish Dementia Cafe Network
The first dementia cafe was created in Ireland in 2011. Since then, other cafes were set up around the country, usually with the word dementia, Alzheimer or memory in their title. In 2019, the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) National Dementia Office, with funding from the Pobal Dormant Accounts, commissioned Engaging Dementia to bring the cafes together and establish an Irish Dementia Cafe Network. The project was built on research which was carried out by the Centre for Economic and Social Research in Dementia (CESRD), and involved consultation with cafe groups, as well as an expert advisory panel.
Locations of Dementia Cafes
These are the list of Irish Dementia Café members.
Contact Engaging Dementia
If you have a query about dementia cafes or the Irish Dementia Cafe Network, you can contact them below.
Email: cafenetwork@engagingdementia.ie