The Bus Between Two Realities: Meeting Elders Where They Are

One of the best parts of my job as a writer for Action Pact is getting to hear all the great ideas folks have to enhance the lives of the residents in their organization, especially those living with dementia. These often require thinking outside the box of the way things have always been done.

Perhaps you have heard of the nursing home in Germany who put up a fake bus stop outside their facility for those residents living with dementia who, lost in a memory, insisted they had somewhere to go.  The Public Radio show Radio Lab did a wonderful piece on it, interviewing folks from the nursing home. You can listen to it here: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2010/mar/23/the-bus-stop/

I listened to this story while driving. Toward the end they talk about how the bus stop got them thinking about other changes they could make to go with the residents’ flows instead of trying to get them to conform to institutional ways. It was during this part of the show that I actually shouted, “Yes!” out loud in the car.

As always, we’d love to hear about your “out of the box” solutions!

Steph Kilen has been writing about culture change since 2004. Her work at Action Pact has included writing and editing for Culture Change Now magazine and the website www.actionpact.com as well as writing and editing workbooks, video scripts, books, blogs, webinars and curricula.