"The diagnosis of someone with dementia is just not the diagnosis of an individual, it's of a whole family, the community that's where the four out of five people affected comes from."
Residents of Summerset Hobsonville take part in a dance therapy session which helps stimulate the brain and staves off cognitive impairment. Photo / Mike Scott
To understand what it is like to live with dementia, New Zealand Herald visual journalist Mike Scott took a simulation test along with staff members from Summerset at Karaka Rest Home to "walk in the shoes" of someone living with dementia.
"It is designed to be confusing. They put on goggles so vision is distorted, they wear gloves so that restricts movement, headphones with loud static noise and stones in shoes to throw off balance," Burns said.
Scott, whose father died from dementia three years ago, said the experiment "sucked big time".
Summerset Rototuna Care Centre manager Jenny Ballantyne works the Tovertafel in the newly opened Memory Care Centre at the Hamlton retirement village. Photo / Mike Scott
"I would give up. This is too hard. I would shut down. You are struggling to make everything work and if it's not making sense, it would be incredibly frustrating to watch me function like this. I would be annoyed at myself."
With an ageing population, dementia is on the rise and so are care villages.
NZ Herald visual journalist Mike Scott takes part in a simulation exercise aimed at showing what it is like to live with dementia.
Therese Jeffs, who manages The Care Village in Rotorua, was influenced by a pioneering Dutch model in De Hogeweyk. There are six people in each house which caters to their previous lifestyles: classical, living, middle New Zealand, simple living, cultural. All residents are involved in normal household chores.
"What we have done is we've taken people as they get older out of their homes and put them in an institution. Their only crime is they got old.
Dementia has been labelled a silent epidemic in New Zealand where more than 70,000 people suffer the terminal brain disease. That number is projected to grow to 170,000 by 2050. Photo / File
"The residents here are calmer, they are more settled and we don't have the behavioural issues. People are free to walk around."
