What do we do with a crazy Dutchman?

[Josquius]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/dutch-build-village-that-time-forgot/story-fnb64oi6-1226316857638

IT has been called the village of the future, but in Hogeweg, everyone lives in the moment. The pretty streets and squares of this experimental Dutch community, with its cafes, restaurant and hairdressers, have been carefully designed to reassure, some would say hoodwink, the 152 residents.

Everyone who lives here has severe dementia and few either know or care that their village is a secure nursing home where the friendly woman on the supermarket till, the restaurant manager and the helpers who cook meals are all trained in the specialist care of the elderly.

Hogeweg has been criticised as a kind of deception but the village, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, has attracted interest across Europe as authorities wonder how to cope with the increasing problem of dementia in an ageing population. A delegation of German MPs has just visited on a fact-finding mission and a Swiss company, after studying the Dutch model, has announced plans to build Switzerland's first dementia village in Bern.
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"Most of the residents don't know it is not a real village," said Isabel van Zuthem, Hogeweg's information officer. "One man, he is probably the least affected by dementia, he knows at certain moments why he is here. But most do not know.

"Of course it is not a secret, but if you tell them, they will have forgotten it 15 minutes or an hour later, depending on the state of dementia they are in.

"That is why it is important to get the whole surroundings as right as possible so they feel comfortable. When they look around, they recognise the environment as being normal."

Hogeweg, which was finished in late 2009, occupies a large self-contained block on the edge of town. None of it is more than two storeys high and there is only one exit, through a hotel-style lobby that prevents residents wandering off.

Inside, the atmosphere is serene. A wide piazza with an ornamental fountain and a restaurant leads to a "high street" and several side roads, all with their own street signs and distinctive living areas.

Because there are no hazards such as buses or cars, residents can come and go as they please. They leave their doors open and fill up trolleys with random items in the supermarket. If they get lost or confused, another villager, who is really a member of staff or a volunteer, is on hand to guide them home.

"Alzheimer's is becoming a bigger and bigger problem and everyone is looking for answers of how to deal with it in the future," said Ms van Zuthem. "For a long time we were a traditional nursing home with a big old building but we realised that things had to change when two people who worked here both lost parents and both said, 'I am so glad they did not have to live here'. That was the start.

"We asked, what is important in life for people? If they come to a nursing home, they should be able to lead a normal life, or as normal as possible. So we demolished the old building and built a neighbourhood."

Staff say the residents improved dramatically in the new village, needing less medication and becoming calmer.

Each of Hogeweg's 23 communal houses is designed in one of seven themed lifestyles based on detailed research into Dutch society: urban, Christian, upper class, homely, Indonesian, cultural and rustic. Each house has six residents with their own rooms who share a large sitting and dining room where they meet for an evening meal cooked in their own kitchen.

In an "upper class" house, two chandeliers hang over the dining room table that has starched linen and china crockery. An antique clock hangs on the wall.

"Sometimes they see me as a friend, sometimes as a little girl and sometimes as a maid," said Anna de Haas, 22, a geriatric nurse who works at one of the upper class houses but without the usual uniform of an institutional carer.

"It is good that they think it is a village, they think it is real. They feel safe here and feel they are at home."

The organisers of Hogeweg reject comparisons with The Truman Show, the Hollywood film starring Jim Carrey, in which reality turned out to be an elaborate television set, but acknowledge that they have created an illusion.

"Our director has compared it to the theatre," said Ms van Zuthem, who refers to her office hidden off the reception area as "backstage".

"You have the frontstage and you have the backstage. The frontstage is what the residents here experience as real. This is their normal life where they can go to the supermarket or the hairdresser's.

"But backstage it is a nursing home. Of course it is a nursing home because they are under care. But what is important is that they experience this as their normal life."

The village cost E19.2 million to build, of which E17.8m came in state funding and the rest from sponsors. Residents, aged from 57 to 95, are state-funded like any other person whose dementia has become so bad that they need round-the-clock care.

There is a long waiting list and the Netherlands Alzheimer's Foundation has called the village "exemplary". Relatives have nothing but praise and gratitude.

The accommodation itself provides the community's own subtle perimeter. Ms van Zuthem added: "What is so beautiful here is that people can just pop outside their front door and go for a walk without needing anyone to help them cross the street.

"They can walk around here in freedom and experience what it is like to feel the rain or see the sun, instead of a traditional nursing home where you constantly have the feeling you are locked up."

Read about this in the paper, struck me as really interesting. Not too manpower intensive either when you think about how much care such folks need in conventionakl situations.

[The Brain]

OMG! Languish...!

[Viking]

Seeing the title here my first reaction was "to ask him where he gets his weed". Now I'm humming "what shall we do with the crazy dutchman" in my head.

[MadImmortalMan]

It's like a Phillip K Dick novel.

[Caliga]

I thought this would be about Joran van der Sloot.

[Josquius]

Seeing the title here my first reaction was "to ask him where he gets his weed". Now I'm humming "what shall we do with the crazy dutchman" in my head.

Hence the title actually, started singing what will we do with a crazy Dutchman after reading it....

[mongers]

Nice to see innovative approaches being tried out to this inevitably growing problem.

[The Brain]

OMG! Languish...!

[mongers]

OMG! Languish...!

Yeah, it's going to be pretty sad in 20/30 years time when we're posting the same old shit *, but forgetting we did and reposting every 15 minutes.


edit:
.... wait, I'm told many of us are already doing that. 

[Malthus]

Heh, the secret of The Prisioner is at last revealed ... 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Are there giant balls that capture escapees?

[Malthus]

Are there giant balls that capture escapees?

No, the inmates just *think* that there are.