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CNN Live Sunday

Connecticut Hospital Uses Main Street to Help Alzheimer's Patients

Aired February 10, 2002 - 18:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: To Alzheimer's patients, an old photograph, a favorite song, and an old familiar place can trigger once-forgotten memories, and as CNN's Beth Nissen reports, one Connecticut hospital is using Main Street to bring those memories back to life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like most people with Alzheimer's or dementia, Rose Barst, age 94, has disabling memory loss. Over the past few years, she forgot where she lived, forgot how to live on her own.

NANCY STRAUS, DAUGHTER: She stopped eating herself and her language -- she stopped talking. She really did. She would just be, "dat, dat, dat, dat, dat, dat."

NISSEN: There is no cure for Alzheimer's and dementia, but Rose now lives in a showcase for one of the most promising treatments: environmental therapy.

This is The Village, an assisted living facility in New Canaan, Connecticut, designed to orient, engage and calm those with age- related memory loss. The heart of The Village is a replica of a small-town Main Street from the late 1950s.

JEREMY VICKERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, THE VILLAGE WAVERY CARE CENTER: Alzheimer's disease causes people to lose recent memory, yet they retain distant memory. And so, therefore, it was very important that the facades represent that which they might remember from 40 years ago.

NISSEN: Forty years ago, when most of the residents here were in the prime of life, working, raising families. Dying memories of those times can be sparked by the sight of lace curtains, an old-fashioned barber pole, a general store.

JOHN ZEISAL, PRESIDENT, HEARTHSTONE ALZHEIMER CARE: People, as we grow older, remember stories. The environment can give people access to those stories.

NISSEN: John Zeisel teaches a course at Harvard on environmental therapy and designing for those with dementia. ZEISAL: Neuroscientists and neuropsychologists believe now that there are profound memories that are hard-wired in the brain.

NISSEN: Memories associated with common gathering places, especially the kitchen. On Main Street, there's an ice cream parlor that doubles as a communal bakeshop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yu want to scoop some cookies?

NISSEN: The rituals and aromas of baking often help residents make connections, associations. Music also triggers memory, of song lyrics, of past times.

ZEISAL: People with Alzheimer's, even at the last stage of the disease, will tap their foot to music. Music is one of those profound memories that people understand almost forever.

NISSEN: After only two months here, Rose, says her daughter, is much improved, feeding herself, interacting, talking.

ROSE BARST, ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT: She's my baby.

STRAUS: No question that she's healthier. She's stronger. She's walking. She's out of that wheelchair walking. She's dancing. You can see a light back in her eyes. And I've just seen somebody come alive.

NISSEN: The Village is expense. It costs as much as $70,000 a year per resident. But it doesn't take a village to get some of its benefits. Key ideas are low cost, simple. And Rose can easily see pictures of herself and her family. Faded photos that help counter the fade of memory.

ZEISAL: All the major disease of the world, from mental illness to AIDS to dementia have all been treated in terms of helping people live better lives. We can do that for people with Alzheimer's. It can be done.

NISSEN: Beth Nissen CNN, New Canaan, Connecticut.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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