Veggies, cookies, tea and coffee were flowing in Brian Mulroney Hall as the St. Thomas University Gerontology Society held their first Memory Cafe event.
Aside from the treats and refreshments, the room was also brimming with laughter, smiles and the sound of intergenerational connections blossoming between students and participants.
On Sunday, Jan. 19, STU’s Gero Society partnered with the Alzheimer Society NB to host the first Memory Cafe event on campus.
The event brought together people with dementia, their family members and students for an afternoon of learning, crafting and connecting.
“It’s just a learning environment, but also helps us to socialize,” said the STU Gero Society President, Emiliana Balseca. “No matter if you’re diagnosed with dementia or not, if you know someone that lives with dementia or not, this is an open space for you to come and learn about it.”
The first Memory Cafe ever held on campus consisted of a presentation about Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, which is in January, followed by a chat and craft where participants decorated the front cover of their “All About Me” booklets. These are informational booklets used by people with dementia to communicate their needs, preferences and stories.
Balseca, a fourth-year gerontology student, said she wanted to bring the Memory Cafe to STU to bring awareness to Alzheimer’s and dementia, but to also decrease the stigma and fear that students may have around aging.
“We don’t often see older adults on campus and we should,” she said. “I thought that if we had students, along with older adults coming, we could build a beautiful environment.”
Balseca’s hopes were realized; with a number of students attending, along with several community members with dementia and their families, connections across generations were easily made.
For Balseca, facilitating these intergenerational connections was her favourite part of the event. During the “All About Me” booklet decorating, she encouraged attendees to sit with people they didn’t know.
“There’s lots of positive outcomes from [intergenerational] interactions,” she said. “Older adults unfortunately live with lots of stigma around different things and that shouldn’t happen.”
Seeing intergenerational connections flourish at the Memory Cafe was also the most impactful part of the day for fellow gerontology student Ben McClaughlin, who also works for the Alzheimer Society NB.
“We know the power that intergenerational relationships and socialization can have,” he said. “There is a mutual exchange of care. There is a mutual exchange of wisdom and of learning, so it’s really quite a beautiful thing.”
McClaughlin has been working with the Alzheimer Society NB since spring of 2023 while he studies at STU part-time.
He said that the Memory Cafe events were a popular part of their programming before the COVID-19 pandemic, however since 2020 the Memory Cafe has faded.
This past event marked not only the first Memory Cafe held on STU’s campus and McClaughlin’s first experience with the cafe, but also Fredericton’s first memory cafe in nearly five years.
“At the core, memory cafes have inclusion, belonging, social engagement, as well as education, fun and entertainment,” he said.
“Once we got into the activity and we really started talking, it felt really natural … I got up to go to the bathroom and [when] I came back in, I saw everyone [connecting]. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, it hasn’t been a total failure. This is really awesome.’”
Aside from the intergenerational connections being a success, McClaughlin was also happy to bring together families with similar experiences to offer support to each other.
He said that it was heartwarming to hear attendees bonding over their experiences with dementia and even sharing their contact information with each other by the end of the day.
“Something that I’ve realized through the couple years that I’ve been doing work at the Alzheimer Society, is that it’s when you’re not aiming for connection [when] genuine connections happen,” he said.
As far as the Memory Cafe’s return, McClaughlin has hopes that it will be here to stay.
In the short term, STU’s Gero Society will be hosting three more of the events in February, March and April.
“It’s nice when you’re able to offer the same event at the same time, at the same location, hosted by the same kind of people, because that’s when those relationships really start to form,” he said.
“My hope is to see it kind of take root and to continue on for many years to come.”
