Stop!

How does a German senior center stop alzheimer’s patients from wandering off? It builds a phony bus stop outside its entrance.

The nursing home was continuously relying on police to find wayward patients who left the site in search of old homes and families (that sometimes did not exist).

“It sounds funny,” said Old Lions Chairman Franz-Josef Goebel, “but (the fake bus stop) helps. Our members are 84 years-old on average. Their short-term memory hardly works at all, but the long-term memory is still active. They know the green and yellow bus sign and remember that waiting there means they will go home.” The result is that errant patients now wait for their trip home at the bus stop, before quickly forgetting why they were there in the first place.

Nursing home staff members then approach them and invite them inside for coffee.



Found here.