Page 36 - Revista FRONTAL Edição Especial iMed 12.0

HUMANITARIAN LECTURES

IRIS VAN SLOOTEN MD

CREATING A MIRROR WORLD FOR DEMENTIA PATIENTS

AUTHOR
DAVID GIL

Iris Van Slooten closes this year’s iMed
Humanitarian Section. She is a Dutch Con-
sultant and advisor on the De Hogeweyk®
Care Concept at Be Advice & Support, the
first and original dementia village. In this
position, she has supported other health-
care organizations, companies and gov-
ernments, always with the goal to improve
the integration of people with dementia
in society.
Her first contact with this field came
when she was studying Marketing and
Communication and started a part-time
job in a nursing home. There, she dealt
with this group of people, whose needs
are not met by the society in general. With
this passion in mind, after ten years work-
ing in the hotel industry in the Nether-
lands, she found De Hogeweyk® project,
where she works until today.
®
De Hogeweyk is a project that stands
out for its originality and genius design:
The creation of a village for people with
severe dementia, allowing them to live a
normal life, with their needs in mind. This
mindset of giving the necessary tools to
live a normal life has come into reality in
the form of 16 living units for 152 seniors can safely roam free. This village is a mi- all kinds of disabilities, whether being
with dementia. The village offers 7 differ- crocosmos of society adapted to a specific physical, neurological or psychiatric. Pro-
ent lifestyles to chose from Goois (upper set of needs, and to help expand the con- jects like this tell all of us that quality of
®
class), homey, Christian, artisan, Indone- cept, De Hogeweyk is open to visitors in life comes first, and it is not disconnected
sian and cultural, making sure each habit- the surrounding neighbourhoods. from the therapeutic march, but walks
ant has a place to call home. Many leading international media have hand in hand with it.
®
The residents manage their own reported on De Hogeweyk such as Times, It is a message of humanity and pro-
households together with a constant Times Magazine, CNN, CBS, ARD, Die Zeit, gress that Iris van Slooten brings us to this
team of staff members. Household chores BBC, The Guardian, The Economist, Le Fi- edition of the iMed Conference, explain-
are done by the habitants with the staff garo, exposing the mission of this project. ing a vision that integrates people back
each day, like washing, cooking and so on, The project has won awards such as Dutch into society, and telling us hoe further
in order to maximize the autonomy of the Hospitality Award (2010), Highly Recom- exploration of this concept could lead
patients. It has a supermarket, allowing mended Award for Mental Health (Kuala to future villages and cities, prepared to
the seniors to conduct their daily grocer- Lumpur 2012) and Dutch Business Success receive the ones with special needs. We
ies, and other facilities to improve their Award Nursing Homes (2015). hope this idea will someday gain track
quality of life, such as restaurants, a bar, a This kind of initiatives makes us won- and cross countries and oceans, for a
grand café, a physical therapy centre and der if our everyday designs and architec- more integrated society.
a theatre. The village has streets, squares, ture standards are just made for healthy
gardens and a park where the residents people, ignoring the ones that suffer from
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