By Steve Moran

In Japan, television director Shiro Oguni created a pop-up restaurant named The Restaurant of Mistaken Orders.

It was staffed by people with various levels of dementia, and his goal was to increase awareness of dementia and to create a more positive view of those with dementia.

From their website:

It turns out while nearly 40% of the orders were wrong, 99% of the customers were delighted.

A Concept for Senior Living

There is a huge opportunity here for a senior living organization to create a pop-up event that mirrors what was done in Japan. It would create a unique, purpose-based activity for residents and their families. It would help demystify dementia and being around people with dementia. It would highlight the community in the eyes of the local community and would likely generate publicity from local media.

Not Without Challenges

It would likely work best as a fundraiser for something outside the senior living organization hosting it. You would need to make sure family members and licensing agencies were on board with what you were doing. And it goes without saying that you would need to choose the right residents.

You might even consider working with a local restaurant rather than your own culinary department.

It could be an amazing annual event that would would showcase in a very positive way how you are changing the world in your local community.