The Peakin

Today's noble idea is an understanding that someone else's idea, while well intended, is actually destructive.

When my family was touring nursing homes for my dad, we visited one that prided itself on its design and "memory stimulation" devices. The floorplan was designed with wings leading to a center hall so that if a resident walked the wings, they'd eventually wind up in the center hall. All along the wings there were memory devices on the wall. In one location there was a wedding dress and pictures. In another location there were plumbing fixtures and workbench tools. The idea is that residents may pique fond memories of their wedding day or their occupational vocation and experience some kind of joy from coming across such a wonderful memory.

Something about this place didn't sit well with me. As we walked around, I noticed that all the residents were huddled in the center room around tables. Nobody was getting intimate with the stuff on the walls. Nobody seemed to be reminiscing. Finally it occurred to me. This design is fundamentally flawed: it approaches Alzheimer's Disease as a problem. In this case, it's a memory problem. And it also seems to place more value on the events of memories or memories themselves than it does on presence and realization of joyful moments in the present, an everlasting present.

The residents were not approaching these things because they have not "lost" an understanding of what something is intrinsically. The best way I can describe it is the philosophical question of "Why is red red?" It just is red. Why isn't it blue? It could be blue if you want to call it blue, but it's red. And despite what we call it, the color is red to all of us. Well, it's similar with Alzheimer's... Regardless of whether they know that a wedding dress is a "wedding dress", they know it's a wedding dress. And wedding dresses do not belong on walls. Nor do plumbing fixtures. Especially non-working plumbing fixtures, that's just flat-out problematic. Why would this place have a faucet that doesn't work? Don't we need to call the plumber? Why is all this stuff on the wall? It's not supposed to be there.

Seems like a big "Duh" to me the more I've thought about it.

So rather than simply cast rocks at problems without coming up with a solution.... I think it would be interesting to subliminally speak to the residents. I don't know how to do it but I know our advertising industry has perfected it, so why can't we apply it to a nursing home? There have got to be ways of subliminally speaking to the residents with positive reinforcement. Perhaps subliminal images of their family members sitting with them. Some kind of virtual reality environment where they are constantly comforted by the things that comfort them but subliminally enough that they are not consciously aware of the presence to be saddened by knowing its absence.