To Help People with Alzheimer's, a Care Community Re-Creates the 1950s

Glenner Town Square in Chula Vista, CA, is a new care community for people with dementia that is like entering a time warp, reports the Wall Street Journal . The 11 storefronts that surround an indoor park represent the time period from 1953 to 1961, when most of the residents were in the prime of their life. Glenner Square opened in August and is believed to be the first memory care community in the United States built entirely around the idea of reminiscence therapy, a therapy that uses prompts from a person's past to elicit memories and encourage conversation and engagement. It is 9,000-square-feet with 24-foot ceilings. The center of the village is a small, indoor park, with natural skylights, and artificial grass for a small putting green and bocce court. Parakeets from the adjacent pet store add to the ambience. A clinic where the center's registered nurse works has cribs with lifelike baby dolls that patients cradle. There is a library with a card catalog, a 1950s National Geographic set and Monopoly and Scrabble games circa-1930. A re-created home space called the "Little Blue House" has an original Philco Fridge and a record player. At the movie theater, "The Greatest Show on Earth" plays in 15-minute clips. At Joy's department store, patients can shop and even bring home a fur coat and bowling shoes. And at the Gone Fishin' Pub there's a pool table, a mini-basketball court and darts. The storefronts use graphics and pictures that can be changed to re-create different eras for different generations of patients. Staff work in a "City Hall" office space. The program is mostly geared toward patients who are in the early to moderate stages of dementia, who are typically living with family or at home with caregivers. Glenner Town Square is a partnership between the George G. Glenner Alzheimer's Family Centers—a California-based nonprofit organization—and Senior Helpers, a national in-home senior care provider. The partners have plans to franchise the concept and open up similar centers across the country. Peter Ross, CEO and co-founder of Senior Helpers, says they've already received interest in the concept and hope to have 200 Town Squares across the country in the next five years.