These settings are not true. But what is for patients with dementia?

The kindergarten at Riverspring Residences in Bronx is radiant, encouraging a space equipped with Bassinet, a cot with a musical mobile phone, a few toys, bottles, books with pictures for bedtime reading and a miniature -sized clothes stand.

One morning, Wilma Rosa tried to serene down one of his broken, miniature allegations. “What happened, honey?” She turned off, patting complaints, complaining. “Everything’s all right? I want you to go to sleep for a moment. “

Mrs. Rosa, 76 years vintage, a resident of memory care in assisted life, visits a nursery every day. She had extensive experience with children.

She was the oldest girl of eight children, so she coped with a immense number of family responsibilities, said Catherine Dolan, director of life at the plant, who asked questions to support memories. Later, Mrs. Rosa worked in a bank and store; Stories appeared when she hugged the doll.

No real children live in an engaging environment in which the fragrance mixture contains the smell of talc. As in the store, there was no actual sales in the corridor, another up-to-date Riverspring undertaking.

Among the wooden shelves of clothing, accessories and Tchotchkes, sales officials, like Mrs. Dolan, trainers trained for effective interaction with residents with dementia.

“Great choice,” said a cheerful cashier-Andre Ally, an engagement coordinator-to 91-year-old who chose the lattice. “Perfect for this weather.”

The buyer handed over a plastic card, which was issued by residents, which had no monetary value, and went with the infantry, satisfied with his up-to-date scarf. “It’s very heated,” he said. “And a nice size, so you can wear it with any coat.”

David V. Pomeranz, president and general director of Riverspring Living – his campus includes an independent and helpful life, memory care, rehabilitation and care home – sees such efforts as ways to “restore normality to people who have been deprived of so much. “

He said that taking a group of residents with dementia could be excessively stimulating, and people couldn’t just leave when they were fed up. But the only shop or nursery “gives them known life experiences that are comfortable, which are authorizing and negate the feeling that they have no control over their lives.”

This is a strategy with supporters – and some critics.

A few decades ago, those who look after people with dementia, both at home and in objects, adopted a completely different approach.

They tried “orientation of reality”, reminding patients that today is on Tuesday, not Thursday. That they could not “go home” because their house was sold. That their spouses did not visit because they died years ago (causing fresh shock and regret with every repetition).

“It didn’t work,” said Steven Zarit, a retired professor at Penn State and a longtime researcher for care and dementia. “It didn’t support people, it didn’t support to adapt them, it wasn’t useful.”

Instead, caregivers have largely adopted a strategy, sometimes called “a therapeutic lie“It slightly tilts painful questions. Where is (died) a beloved person? “I’m sure it will be here soon. You know what movement is. Let’s go for a walk while waiting. “

The introduction of robotic animals that have grown and thunderous, and dolls for children, this has expanded this approach. Especially when pandemic confined other types of interactions, some people with dementia seemed to enjoy such inanimate companions.

Creating a whole environment that can cause the past or simply let people feel that they are taking part in the present, seems to be another step.

In 2018, Non -Profit Family Centers Glenner Alzheimer developed Town Square Adult Day ProgramRepetition of a miniature main town from the 50s in a immense warehouse in Chula Vista, California.

It contains a retro dining room for meals, a library showing a portrait of IKE, a space imitating vintage cinema and atmospheric accents such as Thunderbird from 1959 and an vintage -fashioned telephone booth. The franchisees opened nine similar squares of the city in seven states, with greater development.

Daily programs have shown benefits for participants cognitively handicapped and their carers, but “this environment allows us to delve into the therapy of memories and communication of the Tyburg Lisa, referring to the employ of hints and objects to encourage memories and communication communication.

For the participants, “it brings so much peace to be able to talk about something that they remind,” said Tyburski. “We see how they laugh and smile, make friends.”

Is Slight evidence that such environments, including Villages of Dementia in Europe that they create Whole residential districts (But do not imitate the past), provide clinical benefits or reliably improve the quality of life.

However, “the environment is really crucial and can be allowed or switching off,” said Andrew Clark, co -editor of the book “Dementia and Place” and a professor at the University of Greenwich in England.

“We need to find ways to connect, maintain routine and daily activities,” he said. Such environments can encourage people with dementia “to engage with people, to leave, not to be closed.”

Some experts express ambivalence and ethical fears. Dr. Clark supports the transition from the orientation of reality. “In dementia, there are various situations in which not telling the truth can be better for people,” he said.

But ethics becomes “shadowy”, he added if well -intentional carers treat people with dementia as children. For example, for Dr. Zarit, the distribution of dolls “feels infants”.

The main streets return “Test the boundaries of how much this creativity costs compared to fraud,” said Dr. Jason Karlawish, Geriatric and co-director Penn Memory Center. “It begins problematically, if” other “people,” he said, creating a distance between people with cognitive disorders and all others.

“I think we could find more artistic ways to get involved in significant actions,” he added.

Indeed, dementia programs throughout the country are more and more often Interactive theater experiencesIN possibilities create art and discover music, efforts to Connect through church congregationsIntergenerational meetings with real children and domestic animal therapy with live animals. Hundreds Memory cafes Meet regularly.

Nancy Berlinger, Ethics and Researcher from the Hastings CenterIt indicates another concern for the environment focused on dementia: “That’s all of it comes down to what you can afford.”

In franchise squares of the city, participants pay an average of USD 150 per day. (Medicaid, veterans as well as state and local agencies sometimes subsidize day care costs.

(Compared to Recent York, an average of $ 6,500 per month brought auxiliary life, and care in a nursing home about twice in 2023, according to Annual Genworth study.)

In the villages and dementia environments, he is “worried that they become enclaves for the luxurious,” said Dr. Clark.

Or that they become substitutes for appropriate staff. Pomeranz said that creating a school and Riverspring store was inexpensive. But the staff is not and functioned as intended, the environment requires employees involved in extended talks.

Many home care and residential support, always low, try to react to basic needs, such as escorting residents to the bathroom, let alone facilitate shopping in the store twice a week. Instead of employing and training a sufficient number of people, administrators may be tempted to simply hand over dolls and work.

Nevertheless, the constant search for ways to make life more stimulating and maintained for older people with dementia, the growing part of the population, wins the applause around.

“The choice of brain restoration to an undamaged state does not exist,” said Dr. Berlinger.

But guardians can “try to meet people where they are and say:” What does comfort give? What reduces stress? What brings pleasure? “She said. “We should think about it all the time.”