Dementia cafe to provide a haven for sufferers and carers (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Dementia cafe to provide a haven for sufferers and carers

12:46pm Thursday 28th February 2013 in News By Andy Walker, Chief Reporter (Darlington)

A CAFE to help people living with a progressive brain condition – and their carers - will be launched in Darlington next week.

Alzheimer’s Society staff have teamed up with The Lawns care home, in Ridsdale Street, to set up the ‘Dementia Cafe’ which will open for the first time with a party on Wednesday, (March 6), from 10am to noon.

The charity and the home have joined forces to create a homely, friendly setting for people with dementia, their carers, family and friends to come together to talk to people in the same position as them and get positive practical advice on how to live well with dementia. The cafe will be open to everyone in the borough including other care homes, care providers and individuals.

Alzheimer’s Society staff and volunteers will be on hand to offer information and support.

Alzheimer’s Society dementia support worker Jenny Leeming, who covers the Darlington and Teesside area for the charity, as well as being a carer herself, said: “We’ll be having a look at old photographs of Darlington but it will also be a chance to chat to people who live with dementia over a cuppa.

“I wish I had gone along to a dementia cafe when I was struggling to understand what was happening to my mum in the early stages of vascular dementia.

“If I had known then what I know now I would have understood what was happening so much better and been able to do so much more to help her and everyone involved in her care.”

For more information, email jenny.leeming@alzheimers.org.uk,call 01642-442034 or visit alzheimers.org.uk