Not every person is allowed to live in this extremely comfortable village

12/31/2017

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Society Story: Not every person is allowed to live in this extremely comfortable village

Can you believe that there is a small village where every inhabitant is constantly watched but no one feels uneasy about it? Let's see!

This place is not what it seems

At first sight, this Dutch village is rather ordinary. Every resident lives his or her own life: goes shopping and to the restaurant and does other everyday things. In fact, this Dutch village is a unique place. It's a hospital for senior citizens who have dementia.

Created with the best intentions

The idea of creating such a hospital belongs to Yvonne van Amerongen. She wanted to provide the best conditions for senior patients. This is how special gated village Hogeweyk appeared.

No more closed wards

Patients are not locked in their wards but live normal lives communicating with their neighbors. They do not understand that they are patients. There are gardens, a restaurant, a beauty parlor and even a small theater.

The most comfortable atmosphere

The architecture of the buildings belongs to the times when the patients' lost their memories. It's of the 50s, 70s or even 2000s. Every newcomer can choose any place he or she wants to live in.

Innovative way of treatment

Patients live 5-6 persons per house with their curators. Yvonne van Amerongen tells that the patients need constant communications and interaction with the external world, thus they feel safe and the disease doesn't progress. Researches show that loneliness is as deadly as smoking, and even twice as harmful as obesity.

What the eyewitnesses say

A resident's husband says that Hogeweyk is an open place where people can feel season changing, go to the restaurant, drink a cup of coffee and go wherever they want. There are lots of care-taking personnel that has to pretend to be cashiers, workers and ordinary residents. The whole community really looks like a village except for the fact that there are lots of seniors and no one is asked to pay money at the register.

Every member of the staff has his or her special role

The main principle of Hogeweyk is friendliness and support. The staff is trained to orient on patients' abilities rather that on their disabilities. The founder of the village says that despite of the fact that the residents are patients and have to take pills, first of all, every patient is a personality. The staff knows preferences of the patients but they will ask anyway if the patient needs milk into his or her coffee to let the patient choose.

People are not allowed to leave. Luckily, they don't have to

The village is a closed territory. If a patient goes to the exit, medical staff meets him or her and politely directs the person another way. However, life here is comfortable enough and no one tries to leave. There is everything one may need, even a post office.

This village was awarded

In 2013, Hogeweyk received Highly Commended Award for the new conception of taking care of people with dementia. It's difficult to imagine but living in the village costs less than a full-time nurse.

Relatives can come at any moment

Besides, this hospital is situated a short drive away from the center of Amsterdam. This is why the patients can be often visited.

What do you think about this hospital? Isn't it amazing to treat people with problems in such a humanistic way?

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What are your thoughts on this subject?

102 Comments

Kathy Hurd

Should have this in America. I would love to see my mother-in-law live in such a particle and loving environment.

Linda Lopez

Marvelous place to. Live. More of these places are needed.

Carl Rosignol

Great concept

Diane Rehberg

What a wonderful place!

Pablito Budoy

i never thought of that kind of healthcare establishment. it's pure love for the needy

snowballs

We need this in United States but we all know why we will never see it happen , too much of our money flows out across the Atlantic to Asia !!

tbear

Sounds wonderful! The united States needs this! 😊👍

Adriana Zuliani

A very nice place for the elderly. There should be more of them all over the world.

Marian Spitzig

Super great concept!! Needs to be implemented more places!

Elsa Lang

This is brilliant and should be done everywhere. Rest homes are not a nice place to end ones days - way too regimented. Older people regardless if they have dementia or not, need a relaxed lifestyle.

Patricia Price

What a wonderful idea! There should be more places like this! 👍💖

Dale Dash

should be places like this in Canada and worldwide. not just USA

Sandra Scissom

That is to cool. We need lots of those in America

catmom

For Kathy Hurd -- I agree they should have a lot of places like this in the states. I think it's a great idea. If I ever needed a place like this I'm definitely go there.

Caroline Weis

This is an amazing idea. Unfortunately here in America the elderly are confined to buildings where all they do is, more or less, stare at four walls, but they do have activities scheduled to keep them active, yet that's not enough to do much good. I worked in a nursing home and sometimes the residents, couldn't call them patients supposedly below their dignity, were mistreated. Something like the Dutch would be so much better for the elderly persons and jeep them much more active then the nursing homes we have here.

Debbie Young

That's awesome what an idealistic place for people with dementia...I'm a personal support worker (P.S.W) and have worked with many people who have dementia...that's such a brilliant idea to bad some of our architects couldn't put some our vacant land to such good use like that instead of building senior's residence and charging an arm and a leg for them to live there...I would really love to visit that village like atmosphere it would be so interesting to see how the residents cope .....AMAZING

vicki michelle

What a fantastic idea, treating people like everything is normal, helps maintains their dignity

Brian Smith

I think that this is a great idea. In fact, it is such a great idea that America and other countries would be well served to follow the Dutch approach to this horrible disease. It allows the residents to live out their lives as citizens, not patients.