The Sunshine Cafe
Courtesy of Kyle Simms and The Sunshine Cafe
Just after Covid restrictions were lifted a group of people previously unknown to each other and from various backgrounds came together with the support of the Vicar of St Chads Church, Sutton Coldfield, to fulfil his wish to set up a dementia friendly café for the local community.
Image courtesy of Kyle Simms and The Sunshine Cafe
In those early days we took guidance from the available literature and visited other dementia friendly cafes in the area to get a feel for what was on offer to people living with a dementia and their care partners.
We launched into preparation and completed the action needed to transform the church hall into a bright and welcoming space. With that stage of preparation completed, we fairly rapidly encountered some of the issues that historically have plagued dementia care – some of the members of this steering group wanted an unstructured informal group and felt that their personal knowledge and experience would suffice in creating this group. Others completed courses on dementia care to ensure that they were up to date with current best practice. We are grateful that in the end that we were able to persuade them that offering a person led service was crucial to the quality of the experience that we were able to offer members.
In those early days we benefitted from the wise counsel of one of the Alzheimer’s society advisors and a representative of a local carers support group.
One of the members of the group was especially well connected to others working in the community and she was able to recruit our pilates instructor and our hand masseuse, among others, who now add such joy to the café. Her interest in music and dementia has ensured the success of each month's singalong.
We decided to pilot the café for three months and really, as they say, the rest is history. The first café had less than twenty people attend, but by the third we were close to capacity and have stayed there ever since. In September of that year, we officially launched the café locally and of equal importance, we committed to survey members every year to seek their guidance about what they would like to see and experience at the café. We use other feedback mechanisms but this one decision has been pivotal in ensuring that we focus on the needs and wishes of the people who attend.
We are blessed with an amazing group of volunteers from all walks of life who are highly motivated and compassionate, and work brilliantly as a team. They have developed through personal experience and the training that we have offered, resulting in approaches to connecting with members that are a joy to witness and whose problem-solving abilities are second to none.
The Sunshine Café is evolving, and we have learned many lessons in the interim years, not least that care partners in a supportive environment, refer to the café as respite and that there is benefit to be gained just from anticipating the time that will be spent there.
So, on the first Wednesday of the month we start the day anticipating joy. We set up the café, deliver cakes, make lunches, and sort the quizzes that start the day (and always the conversations), sing, exercise, and relax with hand massage through the morning until we have lunch together. After which we make our way home. Members describe their experience as ‘the best’ and volunteers are overwhelmed with the joy in the room.
If you would like to see for yourself, please visit our documentary and know that if we can help you to set up your own dementia inclusive café in your area, we would welcome the opportunity.
For more information, contact stchadssunshinecafe@gmail.com
