‘Dementia village’ that’s the first of its kind helps residents live normal lives, has a restaurant, theatre and supermarket – and no one wears a white coat
- The Hogeweyk in the Netherlands provides a familiar and safe place for people with dementia to live while keeping their identity and autonomy
- Residents can live as they like and move freely, with help at hand when needed. Why aren’t there more such homes?
The phrase “dementia village” didn’t sit well with Jannette Spiering, senior managing adviser and co-founder at The Hogeweyk in the Netherlands. But after a global media outlet pasted that label on the facility when its reporters visited, they accepted the rather stigmatising title.
“It’s easier than fulminating against it,” she says.
Spiering prefers the word neighbourhood to describe the facility, which lends it some normalcy. For that is essentially what underpins the vision: delivering normalcy to the lives of those who live with dementia.
The first of its kind in the world, The Hogeweyk opened in 2009 to deliver “humanising care for people with dementia”.
Rather than a sterile, hospital-like institution, this reimagined dementia-care facility is a village – with a supermarket, pub, theatre and park. It provides a familiar and safe environment in which people with dementia live while retaining their own identity and autonomy as much as possible.
