Those Diagnosed with Early Onset Dementia Served the Coffees, the Joys Found in the Cafés, Like in the Movie, the Village of Demented

A social welfare program, set up privately, by the Taiwanese Alzheimer’s Association, to help those who are diagnosed with early-onset dementia to stay active and keep on socializing, working, to contribute to this world! From the Front Page Sections, translated…

This is a very special café, the waiters aren’t hotties, and there would never be bad customers either; the servers are elderly, very quick on his feet, but, would often deliver the wrong items to the customers, but the customers just, smiled it off, and told him “it’s okay”, and gave him the encouragements. This is the very first café in Taiwan that hired the adults with early onset dementia, come in and sit, it’s like, you’d, entered that village of the forgotten, full of laughter.

Based off of the statistics of disease estimations, there’s only a one in a thousand who received the confirmed diagnosis of dementia between the ages of 45 and 65, and, it’s estimated that there are, about 12,000 early onset dementia patients in Taiwan.

The C.E.O. of TADA, Lai said, that the confirmed diagnoses of dementia of those under age 65 are the early onset demented, differ from the elderly who were diagnosed, the younger group are more energetic, active, but the medication available right now, aren’t effective for those with early onset dementia, or that the medication can only treat the symptoms, and the non-medication treatments such as theatre therapy, increasing the social circles, to assign the individual to easy-to-manage work tasks, can all delay the progression of the early onset version of the illness.

Last year, the Young Memory Club was set up to offer the needed services to those with early onset dementia, “The Young Café” is set to open by mid-April this year, it’s currently operating on a trial basis. Der-Jen Lai said, that this is the first and only café that’s hiring those with early onset dementia as employees, and the workers here are just like workers anywhere, clocking in for work, practicing making cookies, making coffees, steaming the milk up, to get involved in living in a community, to help them slow down the deterioration process.

The C.E.O. of TADA, Lee said, that they’d used four months to set up the café to get it to work fully, and they’d already trained ten people with early onset dementia, and they’re allowed to choose whether or not they work behind the scenes, in the kitchens, or out in the dining areas.

She’d made the example that teaching the friends with early onset dementia to bake the cookies, to brew the coffees, they’d needed to simplify the steps to easy to remember, and they’d needed more practices, and, after the workers are familiarized with the procedures, they will become able-bodied, but, they may still deliver the ordered items to the wrong tables.

The sixty-two-year-old demented man, Lin was a member of the team, he’d made lattes, baked the cookies it’s easy for him to tackle, he’s looking forward to the grand opening of the café, to interact with the customers personally.

And so, this, is a good program, that helps those with early onset dementia, maintain their work abilities, to help them boost their confidence levels, to allow them to feel useful, even as their condition progresses, it’s also good, because these younger adults with early onset dementia get to keep up with their social skills in a café like this.