Launch of the Irish Dementia Cafe Network

Date: Thursday the 17th of September

Time: 11am - midday

The network will be launched by Miriam O’Callaghan, who launched Ireland’s first Alzheimer Cafe in 2011. We will also be joined by Minister for Older People and Mental Health Mary Butler, who will address attendees.

Other speakers will include two people living with dementia and their spouses. One of the couples regularly attends a virtual dementia cafe. The other couple – Kevin and Helena Quaid - are members of the Irish Dementia Working Group and the Dementia Carers Campaign Network, and run the Kanturk Dementia Cafe.

The development of the Irish Dementia Café Network has been funded by Dormant Accounts through the Department of Health and the HSE’s National Dementia Office (NDO). Engaging Dementia, which was commissioned by the NDO to manage the project, has worked closely with 21 Alzheimer, dementia and memory cafes around Ireland and an Expert Advisory Panel to develop a shared vision of the dementia cafe and network. The agreed dementia cafe model has been developed based on research carried out by Professor Eamon O’Shea, Aine Teahan and Christine Fitzgerald at the Centre for Economic and Social Research on Dementia (CESRD).