Normal form of the Dutch village where everyone suffers from dementia

In the community, Weesp, North Holland is an unusual settlement called Hovevei (Hogeweyk). There reside 152: they eat, sleep, walk, walk to shops and restaurants. However, each of them is constantly being watched. All because of Jogeva actually a medical facility, and all its inhabitants are suffering from senile dementia.

It is a place of mixed feelings: on the one hand, this is a Grand deception, as in the movie "the Truman Show", with another — completely innovative approach to keeping patients.

Jogeva — quiet, idyllic place with a couple of dozen nice houses, manicured gardens, a nice square, a small Central square, post office and even a theatre.

The locals are people of very old age — a stroll through the streets, coming home with bags from the supermarket, leisurely chatting over a Cup of tea or coffee in a cafe. The sellers, cashiers, bartenders, and even the janitors have long known of all residents in person and by name, they smile and wave from afar.

However, each inhabitant of village watched around the clock video camera and smiling employees — not what they seem. All as in the famous film "the Truman Show", with only one exception: everyone in the village, not actors, and doctors and nurses.

Patients Jogeva don't know what they are patients and are in a kind of nursing home. They live in a village full of confidence that we are at home. There are no chambers, the villagers live in these houses, at six or seven people in the house, each in a separate room.

The interior of the houses designed in strict accordance with the era, memories of which have been preserved in the memory of patients are more or less clear whether the mid‑1950s or early 2000s. This applies to everything — furniture, tablecloths, napkins, pattern Wallpaper.

Patients can freely walk around the neighborhood to admire the trees and fountains, relax on the benches. They communicate with each other, go to the mail and in store, a theatre and a café. They are constantly visit relatives — many of them return to Jogeva almost every day.

However, to leave the village residents can't. Two-story house in which they live, is constructed in such a way that they form a solid wall so that Hovevei can neither be lost nor to leave. If someone from patients accidentally come to the only door in the perimeter, the health care provider will politely explain to him that now the door is locked and may need to search for another.

Yvonne van Amerongen, founder of the project

Jogeva — the world's only home for the elderly of this kind. Its founder, Yvonne van Amerongen, for many years worked in ordinary homes. In 1992, she was to transform a typical nursing home to a more comfortable living environments.

And in 2009 she was able to captivate his idea of government officials — which was created after the residential complex, which occupies an area of 1.5 hectares, in which there were 23. A unique project financed by the government of the Netherlands.

Today in Jogeva doctors come from all over the world. According to them, the local model of care for patients with dementia shows the best results. By the way, similar towns are already being built in the UK and Switzerland. But the government assures that the room of an elderly person in such an environment is not only useful and humane, but also costs much less than round the clock care at home.