One of the characteristics of the Alzheimer’s disease is that people who are affected have difficulty staying in place. This is what doctors call ambulation disorder: the patient feels the 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 the patients invited to escape will be able to sit on the seats of a wagon while on a screen images of the landscape will scroll by.
30 minutes of virtual travel that soothes the sick
“It’s a motionless journey that 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”.
Developed by a behavioral specialist, already tested in Italy and in Switzerland, this therapy also makes it possible to reduce the prescription of anxiolytics reducing patient stress.
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