Nursing residence supervisor Caroline Wahlberg chats with an aged man at a mock bus stop at a nursing residence within the Swedish nursing city of Sodertalje. (Photo: AFP)
STOCKHOLM – In a nursing residence in Sweden, residents watch for a bus that by no means comes.
Staff have put in a pretend bus stop in a corridor to ease the minds of anxious dementia sufferers who’re keen to depart.
A bench is pushed towards the wall below an authentic-looking bus stop signal for the municipal transport firm, together with a map of the city of Sodertalje.
An imaginary bus schedule is even posted on the other wall.
Caroline Wahlberg, who runs the Tallhojden nursing residence, sat down with Edward, a resident in his 80s whose blue eyes stared vaguely into the space.
“It is quite common … that they’ve this anxiousness and wish to go residence” at a sure stage of Alzheimer’s and dementia, she informed AFP.
“Some of them have their luggage packed” as they wait on the bench, she stated.
The bus stop was put in 4 years in the past and has helped sufferers many instances.
“I had a girl who lived right here and she or he would come to me a number of instances a day and ask her dad and mom to come back and choose her up,” Wahlberg stated.
“We used to take a seat on the bench together with her and simply wait. And then we began speaking … after which she was calmer. San (and) happier. And we may then go eat or watch TV ,” she stated.
It brings again reminiscences
Fake bus stops had been erected in parks outdoors a number of retirement houses in Germany in 2008 to present wandering sufferers a spot they might instinctively go to take a seat.
At the Swedish nursing residence 35 kilometers southwest of Stockholm, the place 17 individuals at the moment stay, the measure is a part of the remedy of the sufferers.
“It introduced some adjustments right here, it is like remedy,” stated Louise Bass, a nurse who has labored on the residence for 13 years.
The bench is hottest on the finish of the day, when sufferers are probably to really feel stressed.
“Everybody has taken a bus. They acknowledge the signal, so typically they suppose the bus is coming,” Bass stated.
“We sit right here and chat (and) they overlook they needed to exit. It helps lots.”
“The bus stop brings again reminiscences”, stated Rebecka Gabrielsson, supervisor of a number of of the city’s nursing houses.
“They can discuss the place they labored, the place they traveled. It’s a instrument that helps them with their signs.”
But is it morally acceptable to mislead weak sufferers?
An article printed by the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research in 2019 examined the problem of pretend bus stops.
He revealed that whereas the purpose was to cut back the variety of dementia sufferers attempting to flee from nursing houses, the bus stops may additionally enhance their frustration and the sensation of being cheated.
