SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Josh Planos writes at The Atlantic that the isolated village of Hogewey on the outskirts of Amsterdam has been dubbed “Dementia Village” because it is home to residents who are only admitted if they’re categorized as having severe cases of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. "There are no wards, long hallways, or corridors at the facility," writes Planos. "Residents live in groups of six or seven to a house, with one or two caretakers. Perhaps the most unique element of the facility—apart from the stealthy “gardener” caretakers—is its approach toward housing. Hogeway features 23 uniquely stylized homes, furnished around the time period when residents’ short-term memories stopped properly functioning. There are homes resembling the 1950s, 1970s, and 2000s, accurate down to the tablecloths, because it helps residents feel as if they’re home."
In Holland, everyone pays into the state health care system during their working years, with the money then disbursed to pay for later-in-life expenses - and that means living in Hogewey does not cost any more than a traditional nursing home. The inspiration came about in 1992, when Yvonne van Amerongen and another member of staff at a traditional nursing home both had their own mothers die, being glad that their elderly parents had died quickly and had not had to endure hospital-like care. A series of research and brainstorming sessions in 1993 found that humans choose to surround and interact with other like-minded people of similar backgrounds and experiences; the arrangement at Hogewey provides this by ensuring that residents with similar backgrounds continue to live closely together. On a physical level, residents at Hogewey require fewer medications; they eat better and they live longer. On a mental level, they also seem to have more joy. "The people here keep their independence, as much as they can have of it, and they stay activ," says Theo Visser. "Here they still have a life. It's not the sort of slow, quiet death you get in other places. Here everyone feels at home."
(Score: 3, Funny) by VLM on Monday November 17 2014, @06:08PM
OK not being an interior decorator type, what is a 50s tablecloth vs a 70s vs a 00s? I'm guessing the 00s and 50s look about the same, and the 70s is all hippie flower power tie die?
On a tech site like this, I think the phone infrastructure will be more interesting. The 50s and 70s will be standard bell 500 table model phones, truly awesome pieces of engineering. But hard to buy in 2014. The 00s will be a no name Chinese land line with a really long cord (or maybe a cordless).
I'm sure decades in the future they're going to be bugging people like us, trying to source a hundred 2010 era iphones for the old people of the future.
I bet supplying TV is also technologically interesting.
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Monday November 17 2014, @06:13PM
well for one by the 70 that table cloth was browning with age. (since yes they had held onto it)
but hey! I now know what I can do with boxes of computer parts from the 90's.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Monday November 17 2014, @06:20PM
>I bet supplying TV is also technologically interesting.
An eternity of re-runs sounds interesting? Just put a playlist on loop.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday November 17 2014, @06:23PM
I thought VLM meant fitting flat-screens inside wooden cabinets with rotary knobs... There's probably an Arduino project for that.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday November 17 2014, @06:29PM
Well I meant even just the hardware. Imagine scrounging up a mint condition 1970s Sony Trinitron. Or one of those 80s era combi models with a built into the case VCR.
I suppose while we're talking hardware, think of audio. My kids are old enough to have seen physical music media even if they don't use it much anymore, so when they visited Grandmas house and raided her basement many years ago they found her old stereo and they call the LP vinyl records "big CDs" and were pretty frustrated with the 8-tracks trying to turn them on like mp3 players. They are also really fuzzy about the concept of "broadcast radio" needing an antenna and not having a FF or pause button, the concept of broadcast radio is completely dead to them.
Atari 2600 games anyone? Colecovision? TRS-80 computer? Can't have a 80s theme house without that.
(Score: 1) by fritsd on Tuesday November 18 2014, @03:36PM
You have to duplicate the exact burn marks of the ashtray, for the people with good memory:
"Hij had een sprei om... En ik kende die sprei!! Die was uit de voorkamer, die lag daar altijd op tafel, je kon op z'n rug precies zien waar de asbak gestaan had...!!"
(Has anybody ever translated Toon Hermans' Snieklaas from 1974 to English??)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiyxGiORkPU [youtube.com]
PS only 56 more years then it's out of copyright.