The Bus Stop - RadioLab

Sometimes, forgetting somethings can the both the problem and the solution. This episode of RadioLab tells the story of how a nursing home in Dusseldorf, Germany helped their Alzheimer and Dementia patients.

A common problem among these patients is that they become disoriented and confused. They sometimes believe they are still living in the past and want to escape. Nurses try to stop them, but there have been cases where they left the home. For example, one patient was found wandering in the woods. Another made it back to their old house, only to find other people living there. 

Most of these cases involve a patient getting onto a bus. One patient even got on one and made it 20 miles away before the nursing home found him. 

Patients would have to be locked in their rooms so they couldn't escape. One solution to this problem was seen as crazy, but had to be tried. A bus stop was erected at the entrance of the nursing home. Only buses would never stop there; it was fake. Staff would bring back patients who were seen waiting there. 

At first, citizens of the town who were not in the home believed it was a real bus stop and would wait there. Since then, this idea has had great success for the facility. One patient began to think she was a little girl again, and said she needed to get home to her parents. The staff let her put on her coat and go wait at the bus stop. After awhile, she forgot why she was waiting and a nurse brought her back inside. The patient was fine and relaxed after that experience. 

The bus stop would be used every couple of days at the nursing home. Patients would always have a sense of urgency to go home, but then after a while forget why they would want to go home and come back to the present. 

Would this idea work in America? Just by having a bus stop, the nursing home would be lying to their patients. But as it was shown in Germany, the concept works.