A Dementia Café as a Bridgehead for Community-Inclusive Care: Qualitative Analysis of Observations by On-the-Job Training Participants in a Dementia Café

Abstract

Background/Aims: Dementia cafés are becoming widespread as a new approach to dementia care, but their operational procedures and significance have not been adequately studied. Methods: On-the-job training (OJT) for professionals planning to operate a dementia café in the future was conducted in a pioneering dementia café in Japan. The reports of OJT trainees’ observations and learning were analyzed qualitatively. Results: Reports could be summarized in up to 9 themes: 2 related to the atmosphere and significance of the café, 3 related to the guests, such as people with dementia and their families, and 4 related to the café staff. Discussion: The results of the present study identified the elements that make up dementia cafés and their significance and suggest that dementia cafés could be a new type of community resource for dementia care in the future.

Increase in direct social care costs of Alzheimer's disease in Japan depending on dementia severity

“…The availability and use of non-pharmacological services, such as psychological support to caregivers, use of dementia cafés in the community and LTCI services for direct social support might vary depending on the region and memory clinic. 24,25 In addition, although both primary care physicians and physicians at memory clinics can diagnose dementia, these two groups might differ significantly in their postdiagnostic support. [26][27][28] Future studies should be carried out that include multiple medical institutions.…”

Dementia Cafés as Hubs to Promote Community-Integrated Care for Dementia through Enhancement of the Competence of Citizen Volunteer Staff Using a New Assessment Tool

“…Collaboration between citizen volunteers and professionals has been shown to be important for the establishment of dementia cafés [8,27]. It is important that professionals continue to be involved in dementia café management because of the specialized nature of the disease.…”

“…The DCSA was created based primarily on our practice and research in a memory clinic and our management of a dementia café [8,12,13]. We referred to previous studies on dementia care and dementia cafés [1,7,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27].…”

“…Dementia café staff have not been provided with vocational training and often learn what is required for their work on their own. Since the facility standards and staff abilities have not been clearly defined, research on the management styles and effectiveness of dementia cafés remains limited [6,[8][9][10][11]. However, these need to be established to advance the development of dementia cafés as a useful community resource.…”

“…However, these need to be established to advance the development of dementia cafés as a useful community resource. In our previous research, we found that dementia café staff play an essential role, and that medical/care professionals and volunteers can cooperate to manage dementia cafés effectively [8]. However, to clarify the function and role of dementia cafés, a dementia café staff capacity indicator is needed.…”