California Town Uses Reminisce Therapy to Help Dementia Sufferers Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.

Re-Created 1950s City Helps to Ease Dementia s Grasp

Glenner Town Square offers comfort for those with cognitive decline

Teresa Pascual celebrates her 100th birthday at Rosie's Diner, where people with dementia can gather for a dose of reminiscence therapy. Sandy Huffaker , opened in August, Patterson says he’s been able to take care of the bills again, read books, breathe. And when Mary comes home from Glenner, she is in a better mood and easier to be with. “She doesn’t have her memory back,” he says. “But there’s a difference.” Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Located in an industrial building along a nondescript boulevard in Chula Vista, Calif., just south of San Diego, Glenner Town Square is a 9,000-square-foot indoor rendition of small-town USA, where Eisenhower is still president, Buddy Holly sings over the PA system and old movies like Rear Window play in 15-minute clips in the movie theater. An American flag with 48 stars flies outside city hall, near the shiny black 1959 Ford Thunderbird and across from Rosie’s Diner, where pictures of Elvis, Audrey Hepburn and James Dean hang from walls the color of cotton candy.

A growing form of care

The creators of Glenner Town Square hope to revolutionize dementia care through the use of reminiscence therapy, a 1961, when the average dementia patient was between ages 10 and 30 — the time of life during which, research indicates, many of our strongest memories are formed. Senior Helpers, a national organization that provides Glenner’s trained caregivers, is working with George G. Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Centers to create another Town Square outside Baltimore. The goal is to build 100 more Town Squares nationwide by 2021. James Gibavitch plays pool at the pub designed to mimic the 1950s era Sandy Huffaker Each of the 14 storefronts within the Town Square represents an iconic place that participants might have visited in their past — the library, the bar, the barbershop, even the opera house. Guests are guided from one nostalgic scene to another in groups of five, staying in each for about 45 minutes, not unlike a high school schedule. Aides play cards with them, help them paint, tell stories and, in one particularly poignant moment recently, had them copy inspiring messages on Halloween cards for sick children at a nearby hospital, and sign them with “I love you.”

A respite for caregivers

AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers > And research indicates that helps those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of cognitive disease feel better in the moment, often calming their agitation, a painful hallmark of the condition. It can also, according to some research, bolster cognitive ability and reduce depression. “When I first heard about reminiscence therapy about 10 years ago, I was skeptical,” says neurologist Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian in Manhattan. “But my mind has changed. Being in this kind of comfortable and safe environment where you are offered a structured way to remember the past may boost chemicals in the brain without side effects, and that boost could have a ripple effect. It means you could sleep better, and if you sleep better, you’re more well-rested, and memories are consolidated during sleep so you might have better cognition. This doesn’t reverse Alzheimer’s, but it does have a symptomatic benefit that extends long beyond the hours a patient spends inside a place like this.” Have questions about caregiving for a loved one? Caregivers — husbands, wives and children — benefit as much from Glenner Town Square’s setup as the participants. Take, for instance, Joey Tennison, a 37-year-old San Diego deputy sheriff whose mother, Susie, moved into the home he shares with his wife early last year. “It strains every aspect of your life, but it’s brought our family closer,” Joey says, recalling the days when he would be at work and his mother would call 20 times in one hour, asking the same questions. He enrolled Susie, 70, in Glenner when it opened in August, happily paying the $85 a day ($425 a week) for care from 8:45 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. While that’s some 20 percent higher than the average cost of adult day care, Joey — who has visited several nursing homes and assisted living facilities — says it’s well worth it. , so he sees Glenner as providing a savings . Plus, Joey says, “This is not just a bunch of old people sitting around a table,” like he’s seen in many other homes. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. More on health AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS