Page 51 - Green Builder Magazine May-June 2019 Issue

ASSISTED
LIVING

Down TECHNOLOGY

Memory

Lane

For patients, dementia villages evoke a

time when life was simple and good—
for better or worse.
I F A FRIEND HADN’T SENT ME A LINK to this story,
BY MATT POWER

I would have thought it was “fake news.” But this is no
hoax. A place called Glenner Town Square really exists.
It’s a faux community, a partial replica of long-vanished,
airbrushed San Diego. The 9,000-square-foot‰“town” has
been carefully constructed to resemble mid-to-late 1950s
San Diego, built inside a 20,000-square foot industrial
building.
Alternately called “Alzheimer’s Daycares” or “Dementia
Villages,” the concept taps into a ’eld of dementia treatment called
“reminiscence therapy.” This method of “engaging” dementia patients
(Alzheimer’s is a leading cause of dementia) aims to trigger memories
from their past and slow their decline into oblivion. And for many
patients, it appears to be working—pulling memories out that were
buried deep behind their fog of forgetfulness.
The San Diego Times reports that most of the elderly Alzheimer’s
and dementia patients served by Glenner are in their 80s, and their
most stable memories are those they acquired when they were 25-35.
“For these people, walking through an idealized San Diego from their
prime years will generate positive recollections,” the report notes.
The same story recounts anecdotal examples of how a vintage
CREDIT: SUSAN MURPHYŸKPBS poster triggered one man to recall his World War II experiences.
Others begin to tinker on an old, on-site Thunderbird.
Good old days. Dementia villages such as Glenner Town Square

can bring back long-buried memories in Alzheimer’s patients.
May/June 2019 GREEN BUILDER 49

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