One of the characteristics of the Alzheimer’s disease is that people who are affected find it difficult to stay still. This is what doctors call wandering disorder: the patient has a compulsive need to walk, day and night, sometimes going so far as to run away.
In Valenciennes, a retirement home decided to “organize” this runaway by being the first to set up a travel therapy for residents with Alzheimer’s disease.
A room in the establishment has been transformed into a station hall, with a ticket office and train timetables. And patients invited to escape will be able to settle on the seats of a wagon while on a screen landscape images will scroll.
30 minutes of virtual travel that soothes the sick
“It is a motionless journey which soothes the sick” explains Emmanuelle Tiry, director of the retirement home, to France Blue North. “It is a privileged moment of listening, which reduces anxiety disorders, aggressiveness, and wandering”.
Development by a behavioral specialist, already tested in Italy and in Switzerland, this therapy also reduces the prescription of anxiolytics by reducing the stress of patients.
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