There’s a dementia village in the Netherlands—a special town where every resident suffers from severe dementia and everyone working there is a nurse—and it’s getting a lot of attention.
The Netherlands is known for being an innovative country, implementing creative solutions to improve and advance society.
The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries are advancing and implementing creative solutions to push society into the future as the U.S. halts progress and drags society back into the past. Healthy societies gain knowledge, improve, and evolve over time. The current U.S. government wants to prevent access to education and devolve (but that’s an entirely separate article).
The Scandinavian Countries are known for policies and benefits that focus on people, not corporations. Last year, Finland was able to solve homelessness by adopting a housing first policy.
Norway revamped its entire prison system to convert prisons with cells into a group home model that focuses on rehabilitation, not punishment.
The Netherlands is also focused on providing for its citizens and advancing society by meeting the consensus of the population in its policies. They legalized same-sex marriage in 2001 and have been criticized for their lax policies on soft drugs.
The Dementia Village in The Netherlands: Patient Care
The country has now revolutionized care for dementia patients. They have de-institutionalized care by moving patients out of medical facilities and into society.
[The dementia village in the Netherlands] “focuses on possibilities, not disabilities.”
The Hogewyck is a small town dementia village in the Netherlands where memory disorder patients live. Everyone “working” in the town is a medical professional. The concept is similar to The Truman Show—minus the television show and production crew.
From The Hogeweyk®️ website:
The Hogeweyk is the outcome of an innovative and disruptive vision on living, care and wellbeing for people living with severe dementia. It means a paradigm shift in nursing home care. The traditional nursing home has been deinstitutionalized, transformed and normalized.
The Hogeweyk is just like any other neighborhood. A neighborhood that is part of the broader society in the town of Weesp. In The Hogeweyk you will find houses where people live together based on similar lifestyles. They can visit the pub, restaurant, theater, the supermarket or one of the many offered clubs.
The concept supports unique needs, lifestyles and personal preferences. Living in The Hogeweyk puts boredom, loneliness and hopelessness in another perspective.
It focuses on possibilities, not on disabilities. And it goes without say that this is all supported by trained professionals.
Nursing homes are often depressing places. Residents will lay in bed all day even though they desperately want to go outside. There’s rarely staff available to help them into a wheelchair and push them on the walking path through gardens outside.
There are countless stories from staff of nursing home residents who never have visitors—not even around Christmas.
Studies of pets hospitalized for illnesses have shown that when owners visit often, the recovery/survival rate is much higher. It makes sense that the same applies to humans, probably even more so (The author was a veterinary technician for decades, so you’ll see her relate things to animals quite often. 🤓).
Our elderly deserve so much better than to be condemned to a bed in a shared room receiving poor care and abuse (a lot of physical, emotional, and mental abuse occurs in nursing homes). In fact, 5,000,000 elders are abused each year while only 1 in 14 incidents are formally reported.
With the creation of the dementia village in The Netherlands, the country is reminding the world that our elderly deserve respect and the final years of their lives shouldn’t be dominated by loneliness, despair, and abuse.
From the Hogeweyk®️website:
The Hogeweyk® paved the way for a new way of care in The Netherlands and has become a great inspiration for others in world who are looking for humanizing care for the growing numbers diagnosed with dementia.
Years of experience and gained knowledge results in a clear vision on the future of dementia care. The Hogeweyk® is one outcome but applying that same vision many other outcomes are possible.
We strongly believe in the deinstitutionalization of care and the need to emancipate people living with dementia and include them in society.
The dementia village in the Netherlands has received several awards for The Hogeweyk®️:
- Hospitality Care Award 2010
- Nominated for the Hedy d’Ancona Award 2010, Excellence in Health care architecture
- Golden label for Quality by Perspect 2006
- Project of the World, Expo 2000 Hannover
- International Hospital Federation Award 1995, for innovative management
- Dien Cornelissenprijs 1993 for privacy in nursinghomes
Healthcare
For context, this section includes a brief overview and a few facts about the healthcare system in the Netherlands in general.
The country maintains its position at the top of the annual Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), which compares healthcare systems in Europe. The Netherlands has been among the top three countries in each report published since 2005.
The Netherlands was ranked number one in a study conducted in 2009 that compared the health care systems of the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany and New Zealand.
Healthcare in the Netherlands is split up into three categories: in somatic and mental health care, in ‘cure’ (short term) and ‘care’ (long term). Home doctors make up the largest part of the first level. Being referred by a member of the first level is mandatory to access to the second and third level.
Healthcare decisions are made following conversations between patients and healthcare professionals (The government doesn’t ban doctors from saving the lives of patients or dictate how they should treat medical issues).
The creators and architects behind this dementia village in the Netherlands have provided consulting services to other countries interested in implementing the same concept.
It would be amazing to see this become the norm in elder care, unfortunately, it’s more likely that the dementia village in the Netherlands will be replicated around the world, for dementia patients and elder care in general.
However, it’s unlikely to be replicated in the U.S. Unless Americans get money out of politics and crawl out from under corporate rule, a society that prioritizes average Americans and humanity in general will not be a reality.
