Cavan aims to be the first dementia inclusive society

A new Alzheimer’s Café was launched in the Railway Station in Belturbet last Monday.

The launch of the coffee shop marked a huge leap for The Alzheimer’s Society in Cavan to reach its goal of becoming a more dementia inclusive society.

The lady behind the Belturbet initiative is Mildred Morton, who was “delighted” with the wonderful response in Railway Station on Monday of last week.

“My next goal is to expand the event to Ballyconnell and people from the West Cavan area could attend,” she aspired.

The activities co-ordinator for people with dementia in the Oakview Nursing Home pointed out that some people are getting dementia in their early sixties and “tend to stay at home” due to the diagnosis.

“There is a little bit of a stigma there at times and people may be afraid of what others will think of them.

“The Café is a home away from home for the clients and for their family members,” said Mildred.

Chairperson of the Alzheimer’s Society in Cavan Carole Beattie told The Anglo-Celt that in order to “push forward” with a dementia inclusive society, they are striving to ensure that Cavan “is the very first dementia inclusive society in Ireland”.

There are 30 people diagnosed with dementia in Ireland every day and 10 of them are under the age of 65 years.

“You work hard all your life and are looking forward to enjoying retirement and then it is snatched away from you, it is so sad,” Carole said.

She considered the launch of the new café “a success” and, with its future assured, a decision on how often the event will be held will be made “shortly”.

The next ambition of the society is to establish a Café in Ballyjamesduff and, in time, it is intended to establish an Alzheimer’s Café in all the different Municipal Districts.

“It is our goal to get as many people involved as possible in our quest to make Cavan the first on the dementia inclusive society map. We already have 180 people trained,” revealed Carole.

A lot of business people in Cavan have signed up for training and they are given stickers, outlining their roles and the fact that they are dementia inclusive.

“We have the backing of Cavan County Council and recently delivered a talk on the subject to the Council. They subsequently put forward a motion, backing us one hundred per cent – which is amazing,” she beamed.

The Slieve Russell Hotel is the very first dementia inclusive hotel in all of Ireland and Carole Beattie added that they already have 10 people trained.

Cavan County Board GAA has embraced the idea and will be doing a sporting memories café on the October 24 in the Museum in Kingspan Breffni Park.

The Forget Me Not Café event takes place in Castle Manor on the first Wednesday of every month. A support group assembles on the first Thursday of every month at 7:30pm in the Corlurgan Business Park in the CCDL Office.

A Sunday morning sing-a-long takes place on the first Sunday of each month at 11am in the Day Care Centre at the John Sullivan Home.

“Another goal is to get a broad cross section of businesses involved, including banks and credit unions,” Carole outlined.