In 2023, when Geisel School of Medicine student Fares Awa MED ’26 was a Community Health Scholar (CHS) involved with a variety of projects in the Upper Valley, he and faculty advisor Roshini Pinto-Powell, MD, floated ideas about stand-alone projects that could further integrate CHS into the community. Pinto-Powell mentioned the Memory Café and its positive effect on the community.
Founded by a psychiatrist in the Netherlands in the late 1990s, Memory Cafés are a welcoming and supportive space for individuals with dementia and their families to socialize, participate in cognitive and physical activities, arts and crafts, and live music.
With a strong presence in the Upper Valley since 2011, the local Memory Café waned during the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s. Although Geisel medical students were involved with the Café, Awa and Pinto-Powell realized reviving it wasn’t a suitable project for CHS—the Café needed more funding and programming than CHS could give.
The good news is that Memory Café is back in Hanover thanks to two Geisel students—Awa and Stefano Rozental MED ’26 who applied for and received a start-up grant—and their faculty advisor Pinto-Powell along with Upper Valley community partner the Aging Resource Center.
“We were motivated to make this happen,” Awa says. “There is clearly a need, and there is evidence this was successful for the community. Our goal was to reinstate this in a way that is impactful for people who need it most.”
A quote from the Memory Café’s founder guided Awa and Rozental: “The best Memory Cafés are the ones where you can’t distinguish who has dementia and who doesn’t.”
Meeting the first Saturday of each month at Hanover’s Howe Library, the Memory Café is both a revival and a pilot program with expanded activities.
In addition to socializing with coffee and snacks, families participate in music therapy with the Dartmouth Forté—another partnership—for up to 30 minutes or longer. “The group performs their own songs along with older songs that people can sing along to, so it’s a good mix of fresh work and things that remind people of happy memories,” Awa says. “Everyone has a good time.”
Physical activities such as chair volleyball and chair hockey often lead to a competitive game that participants enjoy. With themed arts activities—some are organized around holidays—people select what they want to do and can go at their own pace.
“There are also sessions for the caregivers with a brief power point on a specific topic of their choosing and an informal discussion about the topic or any other concerns that the group may have,” Rozental says. Topics include nutrition, at home activities, how to increase day-to-day physical exercise, the mental health aspect of caregiving and how to identify anxiety and depression in themselves and those they are caring for, and how to get ahead of the curve in terms of self-care. These information sessions set Memory Café in the Upper Valley apart from others.
“Fares and I have had many discussions with families about how the Café has been cherished by everyone involved,” Rozental adds. “Participants have also mentioned how nice it is to chat with medical students and with people who are genuinely interested in getting to know them and their loved one.
“I think a lot of that comes from the fact that it is a very laid-back program—there is no differentiating. We try our best to make sure everyone is seen as the same and everyone is treated that same.”
To ensure sustainability, Awa and Rozental are collecting data on caregiver burden and stress to see how that changes over this first year and are applying for a Dartmouth community service-learning grant. “Our initial grant was used for starting up and buying materials that will be used for the next few years,” Awa explains. “Next year, our community partners, the Aging Resource Center and the Howe Library, will be helping with some of our expenses and we are really motivated to find another donor who can cover the remaining portion of the yearly expenses.”
A group of first- and second year Geisel medical students who help staff the Café will be taking over the program this summer when Awa and Rozental transition to their fourth year. “We have a special group of people who are doing fantastic work—they have been a tremendous help. Hopefully we can increase our family in the coming months,” Awa says.
“The reason we got into this is because we recognize those in the Upper Valley communities have struggles distinct from our academic experience and both of us have been intentional about our involvement in these communities, which has been worthwhile,” he says.
Rozental, who was far from his grandfather in Brazil who had dementia, says being able to help people through Memory Café, “by providing support and comfort to families who need it has been a beautiful experience.”
