VR Design

     It_seems_like_old_times_at_New_York_nursing_home

     Alzheimer's wing, decorated to look like a past
     its patients can recall, seems to help them cope

     By Gina M. Masullo
     Newshouse News Service


     Syracuse, N.Y.-- Advertisements from the late 1930s touting Kraft
     dressing and Post cereal decorate the walls.

     A Collier's magazine lies on a table.  Big Band music blares.

     And nobody would contradict you if you said FDR, Truman or
     Eisenhower were president.

     Walking through the Alzheimer's disease unit at the Jewish Home
     of Central New York in Dewitt is like taking a jaunt back to the
     '40s and '50s.

     That wsa the home's goal in opening the wing in January at its
     151-bed nursing home.

     The home was trying to create a homey atmosphere reminiscent of
     the decades when many of its Alzheimer's patients were in their
     Prime.

     The setting is intended to calm patients who may have forgotten
     their names or believe they are living in the past.

     "They're confused.  It's like they've lost their way," said nurse
     Sally Ryan, director of quality assurance.  "Old ways make them
     feel safe."

     So far, the approach seem to be working.

     Jim Honig, of Syracuse, said his mother's mood has improved since
     she moved into the Alzheimer's wing nine months ago.

     And another Alzheimer's patient who used to scream, shove others
     and rip off his clothes is now quiet, Ryan said.

     "I can't believe it's the same man," she said.

     The wing uses a validation therapy, a new approach for those with
     Alzheimer's, an incurable brain disease that afflicts 4 million
     people nationwide.

     The therapy encourages others to agree with Alzheimer's patients
     if they insist it's Thursday on a Monday, or say they are young
     brides when they are aging grandmothers.

     For some patients, the disease damages short-term memories but
     leaves intact vivid recollections of earlier, healthier days.

     Many Alzheimer's patients in their 70s and 80s often revert in
     their minds to the 1940s or 1950s, when they were newlyweds or
     young parents, Ryan said.

     That's why the Jewish Home decorates its Alzheimer's wing as
     though it were a half-century ago.

     To set up the wing, Ryan used an interior decorating guide from
     the '50s.  The Jewish Home asked Kraft, Post and General Mills
     to donate old advertisements.  Employees shopped flea markets
     and scavenged relatives' attics for vintage furniture.

     The home also allows patients to bring their furniture, curtains
     and snapshots.

     Employees use old magazines, music and movies to trigger patients'
     memories.  Once in a while the patients put on a sock hop.

     "We put the music on full tilt, and they love it," Ryan said.
     "They talk about the war and the dance halls."

     Patricia Kondapi, of the Alzheimer's Association of Central New
     York, said validation therapy seems to ease agitation associated
     with the disease.

     Critics say it involves lying to the Alzheimer's patients or
     creating a false reality for them.  But, Kondapi said, people
     need not lie.  They should try to console them, rather than
     dwell on the flawed details of what they are saying.

     /picture\  Nancy Allen, an employee at the Jewish Home of Central
     \caption/  New York in Syracuse, prepared to hug Lavinna Waite, an
     Alzheimer's patient at the home, which redecorated its Alzheimer's
     wing to look like the '40s and '50s.


     Your Health, Sunday, October 15, 1995, Mpls. Star Tribune, Page E5

     no copyright mentioned