Posted by Helen on: 06.11.2008 /
I was intrigued to learn from a Telegraph article that nursing homes in Germany are using fake bus stops to stop Alzheimers patients from wandering off.
“It sounds funny but it helps,” said Franz-Josef Goebel, the chairman of the “Old Lions” association.
“Our members are 84 years old on average. Their short-term memory hardly works, but the long-term memory is still active.
“They know the green and yellow bus sign and remember that waiting there means they will go home.”
The result is that errant patients now wait for their trip home at the bus stop, before quickly forgetting why they were there in the first place.
“We will approach them and say that the bus is coming later and invite them in for a coffee,” said Richard Neureither, Benrath’s director. “Five minutes later they have completely forgotten they wanted to leave.”
Comment by: Jason Horton
1Aw bless. What a clever way of managing an illness.
Comment by: Elizabeth Chapin
2My dad passed away after living with Alzheimer’s, so I can totally relate to this article. What a creative idea, now if we could only come up with something that would work to keep my teenagers from wandering off task…
Comment by: Helen
3Jason, I thought it was very clever too!
Elizabeth, any ideas on wandering teenagers? I appreciate cell-phones because at least that means I can reach him…
Comment by: Elizabeth Chapin
4I find the cell phones create their own wandering paths – texting instead of studying or cleaning room… I agree the cell phone is helpful to keep track of those teens when they are out an about, but I wonder what it is doing to their minds? Will they have something worse than Alzheimer’s when they get old?