Sheryl Keeme, Aging With Grace Alliance Board Member
If you have heard of The Memory Café, a Sun Lakes-based program serving families with a family member living with dementia and forms of cognitive decline, Aging With Grace Alliance Arizona (AWGAA) has been established to steward the Sun Lakes café held at Sun Lakes United Methodist Church on Mondays going forward. AWGAA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit serving Sun Lakes and south Chandler in supporting families, adults, and caregivers with education, connection, and support. The mission is to support people to live better with dementia.
This year, the youngest baby boomers turn 62 and the oldest, turn 80. According to Women’s Brain Health Initiative, risk for dementia climbs dramatically after age 85. Today, 152,000 of the nation’s 7.4 million people living with Alzheimer’s reside right here in Arizona, a number expected to surpass 200,000 by 2030. Programs such as The Memory Café are lifesavers to caregivers facing a myriad of life changes in caring for their partner or loved one after a diagnosis.
Each week, the complimentary engagement activities strengthen individuals’ living with dementia moods by stimulating their interests, their movement, and their humor with engagement activities designed to draw them in, make them smile, and create community. Among the most powerful benefits of the café is connection, a remedy for the profound isolation that descends on families living with dementia. The connections are formed among caregivers in their facilitated support group, among care partners with engagement providers such as music therapists and art therapy providers, and households meet others to enjoy social outings outside of the café as well.
If your family has learned of a family member’s diagnosis with a form of cognitive decline such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or other dementias, try The Memory Café. The café meets each Monday in the Education Building located in the north portion of the Sun Lakes United Methodist Church campus. For the last seven years, families have received support and community, all for free. The café happens every Monday at Sun Lakes United Methodist Church, only closing for Monday holidays such as Labor Day and Memorial Day. Just visit any Monday at 9:30 a.m. with your care partner, if you are a caregiver, or if you are not caring for your loved one at home, feel free to join the support group on your own. For more information, visit agingwithgraceaz.org, call 480-256-2452, or email elaine@successfulaging.com.