Re-Created 1950s City Helps to Ease Dementia’s Grasp

A respite for caregivers

The concept of reminiscence-therapy villages grew outside Amsterdam with a small “town” that’s actually an assisted living facility called Hogewey. A report in the Journal of Dementia Care noted that residents of Hogewey settle easily and, as a result, may need less medication than those living in traditional homes.

Glenner is different in that its participants (don’t call them patients) go home at the end of the day. “We’re creating an extra step between being at home and being in assisted living,” says Scott Tarde, CEO of George G. Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Centers, which operates two traditional dementia care centers in the San Diego area in addition to Glenner Town Square.

And research indicates that reminiscence therapy helps those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive disease feel better in the moment, often calming their agitation, a painful hallmark of the condition. It can also, according to some research, bolster cognitive ability and reduce depression.

“When I first heard about reminiscence therapy about 10 years ago, I was skeptical,” says neurologist Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian in Manhattan. “But my mind has changed. Being in this kind of comfortable and safe environment where you are offered a structured way to remember the past may boost chemicals in the brain without side effects, and that boost could have a ripple effect. It means you could sleep better, and if you sleep better, you’re more well-rested, and memories are consolidated during sleep so you might have better cognition. This doesn’t reverse Alzheimer’s, but it does have a symptomatic benefit that extends long beyond the hours a patient spends inside a place like this.”

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Caregivers — husbands, wives  and  children — benefit as much from Glenner Town Square’s setup as the participants. Take, for instance, Joey Tennison, a 37-year-old San Diego deputy sheriff whose mother, Susie, moved into the home he shares with his wife early last year. “It strains every aspect of your life, but it’s brought our family closer,” Joey says, recalling the days when he would be at work and his mother would call 20 times in one hour, asking the same questions. 

He enrolled Susie, 70, in Glenner when it opened in August, happily paying the $85 a day ($425 a week) for care from 8:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. While that’s some 20 percent higher than the average cost of adult day care, Joey — who has visited several nursing homes and assisted living facilities — says it’s well worth it. Private care averages around $20 an hour nationwide, so he sees Glenner as providing  a savings . Plus, Joey says, “This is not just a bunch of old people sitting around a table,” like he’s seen in many other homes. 

Susie had a tough time during her first days at Glenner: She was agitated and uncomfortable and called home constantly, Joey remembers. And yet, he says, she seemed comforted by the portraits of Eisenhower and Roosevelt on the  wall,  and the music. “I don’t think she thinks she’s in the ’50s,” he says. “But it all feels familiar to her — and safe.” To ease Susie’s agitation, Glenner caregivers tapped into what they knew about her — she used to be an accountant, so they printed spreadsheets for her to fill out and gave her a desk to work at. 

“I’m not saying my mother is getting better,” Joey says. “But she has a purpose now. She even asked us to buy her new dresses because she wants to look good. She got her dignity back.”