This page is part of PrimeCarers' guide to dementia care. It answers one question: what a dementia cafe is, and how to find one.
The short answer
- A regular, informal group for two people at onceSomeone with dementia and the person who cares for them go together, usually over tea, rather than one of them being left waiting outside.
- Games, music and a chance to talk to someone who understandsMost sessions mix a familiar activity with informal time to ask a question or simply sit with people who are not surprised by dementia.
- The first visit is usually the hardest oneA shorter first session, and permission to leave early if it does not go well, makes the second visit far easier.
- The Alzheimer's Society and Age UK both list cafes by postcodeYour GP, memory clinic or council will usually know the ones nearest you too.
Checked against the Alzheimer's Society, Age UK and Dementia UK, September 2026.
What they are
A regular meet-up built for two people in the room at once
A dementia cafe brings together someone with dementia and the person who cares for them, in an ordinary room rather than a clinic, over a cup of tea.
The idea began in the Netherlands in 1997, when the clinical psychologist Bère Miesen started the first Alzheimer Café in a lecture room at Leiden University: a welcoming, unhurried place, deliberately unlike a hospital or a surgery, where people affected by dementia could meet. The model spread quickly, and today the Alzheimer's Society, Age UK and local charities between them run cafes in most parts of the UK, usually weekly or monthly, in a church hall, a community centre or a cafe borrowed for the afternoon.
What makes a dementia cafe different from most other support on this site is that it is built for both people who walk in together, and it does a different job for each of them in the same hour.
For the person with dementia
- A familiar kind of activity: a game of cards, music, a quiz
- Other people who are not surprised by a repeated question
- A friendly member of staff, not a clinical appointment
For the person caring for them
- Somebody else who understands, without having to explain from the start
- A chance to ask a professional a question that has been on your mind
- An hour that is company rather than another task on the list
Both of these happen in the same room, over the same pot of tea.
Most cafes are drop-in and free to attend, run by staff and volunteers rather than clinicians, so there is usually no referral or appointment needed. A health professional sometimes sits in for part of the session to answer questions informally, but it is a social visit rather than a medical one. If loneliness itself has become the harder problem, can a lack of social interaction cause dementia looks at what the research says about company and cognitive decline.
What happens there
What usually happens: tea, a familiar activity, and time to talk
Every cafe runs a little differently, but most sessions follow a similar shape: something to do together, and time to simply sit and talk.
Games, quizzes and singing
Reminiscence
Informal advice
Tea, and time to just sit
The Alzheimer's Society also runs Singing for the Brain, a separate, structured singing group for people with dementia and carers, in some of the same venues as its dementia cafes. It is worth asking about when you get in touch, alongside the cafe itself. For more ideas to try together outside a group setting, 37 activities for someone with dementia has a fuller list grouped by what each one is good for.
Before you go
What to expect the first time, and how to make it easier
The first visit is usually the one families worry about most, and it is often the hardest one too. A little preparation makes it far more likely you will both want to go back.
- 1
Call ahead first
Before you goAsk whether it is drop-in or needs booking, whether a diagnosis is expected, and whether there is a small donation for tea. Cafes vary, and a two-minute call settles all of it. - 2
Bring something familiar
OptionalA photograph, a favourite object or a dementia assistance card can help if your relative finds new places or new faces unsettling at first. - 3
Plan for a short first visit
First visitStaying for twenty minutes and leaving on a good note beats staying the full hour and leaving on a bad one. You can arrive part-way through if starting cold feels like too much. - 4
Give it more than one try
Second and third visitA quiet or awkward first session is common and does not mean it will not work. Most families who stick with a cafe say the second or third visit is far easier than the first.
Finding one near you
Where to look first
A handful of organisations between them cover most of the country, and your GP or council will usually know who runs the nearest one.
- 1
The Alzheimer's Society
NationalSearch by postcode on their site, or call the Dementia Support Line on 0333 150 3456 (Monday to Wednesday 9am to 8pm, Thursday and Friday 9am to 5pm, weekends 10am to 4pm) and ask for your nearest dementia cafe. - 2
Age UK
NationalAge UK's local services search also lists memory cafes and similar dementia-friendly groups by postcode, alongside befriending and other local support. - 3
Your GP, memory clinic or council
FreeAll three usually hold a list of what runs locally, and a GP or memory clinic can point you towards the group that best fits your relative's stage. A carer's assessment from the council is a good moment to ask, since it looks at what would help you as well as them. - 4
A carer on the days in between
If a cafe alone is not enoughMost cafes run weekly or monthly, and if the days in between are the harder problem, a companionship carer can bring the same kind of activity and conversation into the home on the days a cafe is not running.
Questions
Questions families ask about dementia cafes
Usually not. Most run as an open drop-in for anyone worried about their own or someone else's memory, whether or not there is a diagnosis yet. A few ask for one, so it is worth checking with the organiser before your first visit. The Alzheimer's Society's Dementia Support Line can tell you which cafes near you welcome people without a diagnosis.
Nothing. They are the same kind of group under two different names, and both terms are used across the UK depending on who is running the session.
Most dementia cafes are free, and where there is a charge it is usually a small donation of a few pounds towards tea and biscuits, with nobody turned away for not paying. Call ahead if you want to check before you go.
This is common, especially on a first visit, and it does not mean the cafe is the wrong fit. Plan to stay for a shorter time to begin with, and it is fine to leave early. What to expect the first time has more on making the early visits easier.
Yes. A companionship carer can take your relative to a regular session and stay with them there, and can also bring similar activity and conversation into the home on the days in between. Every carer's identity, right to work and enhanced DBS on the Update Service are checked before they appear, and every carer has interviewed online. Carers are self-employed rather than employed by PrimeCarers. What carers do on a companionship visit has more detail.