Picture-perfect houses, manicured gardens, a local store, a farm housing llamas and chickens, a hair salon, and a salubrious bistro with beer and margaritas on tap.
These aren’t the typical elements of an assisted living facility, but Village Langley in Canada is looking to flip the concept of dementia care on its head, with a homely rather than hospice-like atmosphere.
The ‘dementia village’ opened in 2019 and it is currently home to 75 residents who pay between $8,000 to $10,000 per month depending on their individual care requirements and it also accommodates a brigade of staff who wear everyday clothing instead of scrubs.
On the Village Langley Instagram page, a description reads: ‘The Village enables safe and enriched living for persons living with dementia. Our model supports quality of life, fulfillment, dignity and choice.’
Village Langley opened in 2019 and it is currently home to 75 residents
The ‘villagers’ pay between $8,000 to $10,000 per month for 24/7 care
On the Village Langley Instagram page, a description reads: ‘The Village enables safe and enriched living for persons living with dementia. Our model supports… dignity and choice’
Instead of being confined to their living quarters, the residents are able to explore the grounds at their leisure
Each house on the estate accommodates 12 people living with support staff.
Instead of being confined to their living quarters, the residents are able to explore the grounds at their leisure, with 2.5-meter-high fences, cameras and sensors ensuring their safety.
Natalie Podwinski has worked at Village Langley since it opened as a ‘Life Enrichment Manager’ and she says she is in full support of the dementia care concept.
She told DailyMail.com: ‘The Village Langley is unique in the way it is organically changing its routines and life enrichment programs to the villagers’ needs and wants as they go through their journey with dementia.
‘We help make every day great for our villagers! We call our residents villagers instead of patients to make them feel more at home.’
She says the relaxed atmosphere brings many benefits to the residents and the staff have seen ‘less behaviors of frustration and aggression due to this approach.’
The healthcare worker added: ‘The trained staff understand the importance to continue to be flexible and adjust to the villagers’ needs. This allows the villagers to feel a sense of control in their day, and maintaining their identity and autonomy.’
Alan Meggy, 75, has lived at the Village Langley since August 2021 and his longtime friend, Carole Chesham, told Global News that she is also an advocate of the model.
There is a humble local shop where villagers can browse for goods
Natalie Podwinski has worked at Village Langley since it opened as a ‘Life Enrichment Manager’ and she says she is in full support of the dementia care concept
The staff say they have seen ‘less behaviors of frustration and aggression’ thanks to a more relaxed atmosphere at the care facility
Langley Village was the vision of Elroy Jespersen, who worked in senior living for almost three decades before founding his own operation
Alan was a keen adventurer before he was diagnosed with dementia, climbing some of the world’s most challenging mountains and driving race cars.
Carole says that she thinks ‘it’s very important when you’ve been an active person, that you’re in a place where you don’t feel institutionalized, where you feel a sense of freedom.’
That was the vision of Elroy Jespersen, who worked in senior living for almost three decades before co-founding Village Langley.
After harboring various frustrations with the traditional healthcare system, he went about investigating a better way of looking after dementia patients and was inspired by a similar operation in the Netherlands.
He explained: ‘Having society, first of all, realize that people with dementia are first and foremost people.
‘They are your family in many cases. They can live a good life, a different life, perhaps, but still a good life.’
Jespersen and his team went about constructing a five-acre village with an aim of making it as ‘deinstitutionalized’ as possible.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 747,000 Canadians are living with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia
Podwinski said if she had to sum up the Village in three words, they would be ‘engagement, freedom, and comfort’
There are llamas in the villagers, which the residents can pet and feed
‘Institutions, hospitals wear uniforms, they wear smocks, they wear scrubs. And we don’t want that, we aren’t that. So we just [tell the staff to] dress normal,’ Jespersen explained.
His employee, Podwinski, said if she had to sum up the Village in three words, they would be ‘engagement, freedom, and comfort.’
It gives those living with dementia a freedom of movement and an opportunity to direct their own day. This helps to maintain a slice of their independence.
Asked what she has been most impressed with during her time there, she told DailyMail.com: ‘I am impressed [with] how the villagers light up when they help the staff deliver newspapers to the houses, how they help clean dishes after a meal, go to the general store for “shopping” and doing the daily things they used to do in their home.
‘This brings so much joy to their day.’
She concludes: ‘I definitely think more places should adopt the model we have.
‘It gives those living with dementia a freedom of movement and an opportunity to direct their own day. This helps to maintain a slice of their independence.’
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 747,000 Canadians are living with the condition or another form of dementia.
And worldwide, that number is at least 44 million, making the disease ‘a global health crisis that must be addressed.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk