“An absolute, total lifeline”: Parson Cross Memory Café thrives on Zoom
12 months ago, the Parson Cross Forum’s Memory Café, for people with dementia and their carers, had to move online. I joined in with their one-year celebrations.
Slotting between a singer and a game of bingo, I talked to the staff and attendees of Parson Cross Forum’s Memory Café during a celebration of 12 months of Zoom sessions. Three times a week, people with dementia and their carers have been gathering online to chat, keep each other’s spirits up, and give and receive support.
Prior to the Covid lockdowns, the Memory Café met at the Parson Cross Forum building on Margetson Crescent, led by Louise Ashmore and Louise Askew. It was group member Howard’s idea to move the group to Zoom, at a time when members of staff hadn’t even heard of the platform.
Howard himself lives with dementia and has become a campaigner for people with the diagnosis.
Other members were just as complimentary. Nigel said:
In fact, despite Memory Café members missing physical contact and the cooked breakfast the Forum normally provides, the move online has even had some benefits compared to in-person meetings because rather than only speaking to the people sitting next to them, members are talking to everybody who attends. Gordon said:
David, who has had to seriously limit who he is in contact with due to being “bubbled” with his parents, also appreciates the community and friendship the group offers.
Several Memory Café attendees have partners with dementia who now live in care homes. Lockdown and the resulting ban on visiting has made this especially difficult to cope with.
Gordon told me that not being able to have visitors was having “a huge impact” on the mental and physical wellbeing of people in care homes and their families. Other members mentioned inconsistent visiting rules between homes and some people having to visit their loved ones from behind a screen as particularly difficult to cope with.
As well as being very confusing for people with dementia, Louise and others fear that the lockdown has had a severe impact on the mobility of members, who can no longer go to Parson Cross Forum for a dance or exercise class.
The group is close-knit and mutually supportive. Louise Ashmore explained:
It’s not just the Memory Café’s attendees who appreciate the project; it has been shortlisted for ITV’s National Diversity Awards and it's down to the final eight in its category. 64,000 groups were nominated.