The forget-me-not café launch was a success this week with more than 50 people attending the event at Kelly’s Café and Restaurant in Canning Vale.
Every second Wednesday of the month the forget-me-not café will give an opportunity to people living with dementia and carers a chance to connect with the community and interact in a supportive environment.
Forget-me-not café secretary Ronnie Baldwin said her connection to the initiative came about because her own husband lived with dementia.
Ms Baldwin said she was pushing to get a memory café going in Gosnells for quite some time and contacted council in January and received the support she needed to make it happen.
There are now nine memory cafés across metropolitan Perth.
Ms Baldwin said she believes it is important for people living with dementia to interact and have social contact.
“Along with a diagnosis of dementia comes isolation and friends often don’t know what to do so they stay away,” she said.
“The cafés give us the opportunity to make new friends that are just like us.”
Ms Baldwin also said the café would not have formal events as they wanted the community to simply sit in the café, talk, laugh and enjoy sharing stories.
“Should it be someone’s birthday we will sing happy birthday or congratulate a couple on their wedding anniversary because we are just friends touched by a medical condition,” she said.
Ms Baldwin was also part of the Rockingham forget-me-not café launch last year and continued to receive positive feedback from the community.
