Cover News reporter Qin Yi, photography reporting intern Tang Yijiao. â–³ In spring, the elderly come out to sell coffee, and everyone is happy (photo provided by interviewees). In the variety show “Unforgettable Restaurant”, many viewers first learned about “cognitive disorders”. This mainly manifests as memory impairment and speech disorders, which are prevalent among the elderly. In Chengdu, there is a “Unforgettable” coffee shop where a group of elderly people with cognitive disorders live and experience the feeling of “being needed” again.
“The Unforgettable” coffee shop is located in Chenghua District, Chengdu’s first cognitive impairment-friendly street, within the Aiken Kangyang · Giant Panda Base Community Health Care Complex (hereinafter referred to as Aiken Kangyang), where the staff are young social workers and elderly people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
On July 11th, when the reporter visited here, the elderly had just woke up from their afternoon nap and were having afternoon tea. After finishing the tea, Dai grandmother and Zhou grandmother arranged to take a walk on the first floor.
“Dai grandma, I want to drink coffee, can you make me a cup?” When the two elderly people came downstairs, the staff member, Duan Bin, “teased” the two grandmothers – since the elderly moved in, the staff often interact with elderly people with cognitive disorders in this way, hoping they would gain an optimistic and healthy mindset and slow down the progression of the disease.
The “Unforgettable” coffee, which needs to be made under the guidance of the staff, is the window and possibility for the elderly to reconnect with the world.
This text has 2700 words. Read time: 12 minutes. Cognitive disorder elderly make coffee Want to bring back to the room to give to their elderly partners.
“Sister, do I know you?” With a smiling face, Grandma Zhou asked the reporter, then reached out her hand, held the reporter’s hand, and started talking.
“How old are you?” “I am 28 years old.” Grandma Zhou spoke without any hint of joking. In fact, she is 88 years old, which is the daily routine of the cognitive disorder group.
Su Youcheng, the founder of Ainkangyang, mentioned a set of numbers: currently, there are 38.77 million elderly people in China aged 60 and above with mild cognitive impairment, of which 9.83 million have Alzheimer’s disease. Changes in the brain have caused the elderly to lose some of their memories and lead to other pathologies. The “Unforgettable” coffee shop on the first floor of Aiken Kangyang is a way for the elderly to fight against forgetfulness. Every weekend, Aiken Kangyang’s social workers will organize elderly residents to come to the coffee shop to practice making coffee, and the coffee they make will be sold to nearby people.
When the young man who often takes them out for a drive made a request, Dai Grandma immediately sent a silent cry for help to the staff. Although she had made coffee several times before, Dai Grandma still forgot how to do it.
The staff member Wu Yanan supported the two grandmothers into the coffee shop operation room and started the coffee-making process: grinding beans, compressing powder, extracting, foaming milk, adding coffee liquid… It looks like a cup of “Unforgettable” coffee is no different from ordinary coffee, but for Dai Grandma and Grandma Zhou, this is a precious “gift” – even though they turned their heads, the two elderly people forgot how to make it.
Dai Grandma wanted to give this “delicious” cup of coffee to Duan Bin, and also wanted to give it to Su Youcheng. In the few minutes before this, Su Youcheng had just talked to her in the room, so he should be a familiar friend to her; Grandma Zhou didn’t know what she had just made, she thought the cup she was holding was “milk” and wanted to take it back to the room for her elderly partner.
Cross-generational interactions heal Makes cognitive disorder elderly relaxed and comfortable. In 2019, a public welfare program focusing on cognitive impairment, “Unforgettable Restaurant,” went online. This program records interactions between elderly people with cognitive disorders and celebrities, as well as interactions with diners in the restaurant, to raise more awareness of the cognitive impairment population and allow the elderly to integrate into the community and actively participate in social activities.
The emergence of the “Unforgettable” coffee shop draws on the model of “Unforgettable Restaurant”, but in fact, Su Youcheng and his team have been paying attention to and studying the cognitive disorder group since 2016.
In order to make the team’s knowledge more professional, Su Youcheng has been in contact with professional medical teams domestically and internationally for many years, updating his professional knowledge through learning and training.
“Usually, people equate cognitive impairment with Alzheimer’s disease, but the causes of cognitive impairment are much more complex than people think,” Su Youcheng said. Alzheimer’s disease is a type of cognitive disorder, accounting for about 60%. Surveys show that every 3 seconds a senior is “targeted” by cognitive disorder-like conditions globally, a situation that is temporarily “incurable” and can only be slowed down with auxiliary means, which is the current confirmed conclusion.
Why choose to open a coffee shop? Su Youcheng mentioned that older people nowadays are not actually familiar with coffee, and most coffee lovers are young people. Letting the elderly make coffee themselves and then sell it is actually engaging in cross-generational interactions.
In Su Youcheng’s view, cross-generational interactions are an important part of healing cognitive disorders in the elderly. “Communicating with adults is relatively stressful for the elderly, but interacting with children is carefree, and the vitality of children will also have a great impact on the elderly,” Su Youcheng said. They also organize some parent-child activities to allow children to interact with the elderly. It is also in such interactions that they find the elderly people’s thinking logic gradually becoming clearer.
By offering a cup of coffee, the elderly regain a sense of achievement (photo provided by interviewees). Focus on the cognitive impairment group for many years Advocating early detection, diagnosis, and intervention. While comforting the elderly on one hand, Su Youcheng also hopes to eliminate the public’s prejudices and misunderstandings towards cognitive disorders and advocates for early detection, diagnosis, and intervention.
“The patient’s world is like Van Gogh’s Starry Night, chaotic but special. We should give them more love.” A citizen who watched the cognitive impairment popular science left these words in the “Unforgettable” coffee shop. Moreover, Su Youcheng’s team has also produced popular science manuals in professional medical care knowledge in simple and understandable language for distribution in the community.
How to intervene in cognitive disorders? Su Youcheng said the difficulty lies in having a full understanding of it, acknowledging and believing that patients have emotional memories, analyzing the patient’s response mechanism scientifically, and then taking corresponding measures.
In order to help cognitive disorder patients find joy and a sense of achievement in life, Su Youcheng has created “Ainkang Coins” that circulate within the facility. For example, making a cup of coffee earns 20 coins, singing, dancing, painting, feeding pets, etc., earns 10 coins, drinking at least 1500 ml of water a day earns 50 coins, and so on. These rewards make the elderly feel rich and happy. At the same time, “Ainkang Coins” can also be spent on physical therapy, rehabilitation, or purchasing items.
This “earning money” approach has to some extent motivated the elderly, giving them a sense of achievement, and they can also gain “income” through effort.
A Cup of Coffee Helps Cognitive Disorder Elderly Find a Sense of Achievement. Can elderly people with cognitive disorders, after a period of careful care, return to society and their families? Su Youcheng admits that it is very difficult. He said that although the team is trying to create a relatively comfortable and stable environment, providing the cognitive disorder group with love and companionship, the patients may relapse when faced with changes in the environment or improper communication and arrangements.
Since returning to society is almost impossible, what is the value of the “Unforgettable” coffee shop? Su Youcheng used a sales experience to answer this question.
When the “Unforgettable” coffee shop first opened, it was spring, and many young people came camping around Ainkangyang. Su Youcheng then took the elderly to sell the well-made coffee. While only a few elderly people actually went to sell the coffee, almost all the elderly people in the facility came out. Everyone looked at the crowds in the campsite, feeling the joy of being in touch with nature and the crowd, and everyone was smiling – at that moment, Su Youcheng felt that this work was valuable.
“They can always be happy, can live with dignity and with quality until they leave, that’s quite a good state.” Now, it is midsummer, and there are no longer crowds of campers around, and the elderly may not have experienced this joy for a long time.
But fortunately, after summer, autumn will come, and when the temperature is right, young people will return. At that time, Su Youcheng will take the elderly to “set up stalls” again, and the strong sense of being needed will return.
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