Alzheimer's is a heartbreaking disease. It robs the elderly of their most prized possession — their memories. This loss of memory can also be tragic for those who love them — not only because people with Alzheimer's often forget who the people closest to them are — but because they can also get confused and endanger themselves.
Lost in their memories, Alzheimer’s patients have a tendency to get disoriented and wander off. When this happens, they sometimes end up far from home and in compromising situations, like standing in the middle of a highway or wandering aimlessly, cold and shoeless, into the wilderness.
So what do you do to protect those with Alzheimer’s? It’s a conundrum many families and health care professionals wrestle with on a regular basis. Should you lock them up? It’s been the solution to this problem for years, but it seems cruel, even if it’s for their own good.
Benrath Senior Center, a nursing facility in Düsseldorf, Germany, came up with a unique solution to this problem. One staff member began to notice that the first place a lot of confused Alzheimer’s patients usually headed to was a bus stop, which, when you think about it, makes a lot of sense. A bus stop might lead them to their old home, job, or a life that made sense to them before they randomly found themselves in a strange facility.
As a joke during a meeting, this employee suggested that they build a bus stop right in front of the home. But it would be a stop for a bus that never came — a bus stop to nowhere. This fake stop would act as bait for the baffled, a place where a staff member could go to retrieve them when they went missing.
At first, the idea was regarded as ridiculous, but after second thought, the hospital’s director, Richard Neureither, decided to give it a try…
Neureither put up an iron post with a sign that looked like every other government-issued bus stop in Germany right in front of the facility.
Everyone had a hard time adjusting to the faux stop at first: The rest of the staff found the idea inappropriate, and people who lived around the facility actually thought it was a real bus stop and had to be told, one-by-one, that it wasn’t real.
Then, one day, a patient began to have an episode. She thought she was a little girl and had to get home to her parents. If she didn't leave then, her parents would be upset. She was having a fit.
So, the staff decided to give the bus stop a try. They wrapped her in a warm coat and a hat, and let her walk outside. She immediately saw the stop, sat down, basked in the fresh air, calmed down, and eventually forgot why she was there. A staff member was able to sit by her side after a while and then kindly guide her back inside.
Ever since, the stop has been frequently used.
What do you think of this practice? Brilliant? Still cruel? Sound off in the comments below and make sure to SHARE this with all your friends and family!
A special h/t to Radiolab, who initially reported on this story. Please SHARE this with everyone you know!
