Interesting new approach to helping ease the confusion in Altzheimer's patients

It's so simple and so brilliant.

One common symptom of Altzheimer's is confusion. Patients become disoriented and in some cases panic and just want to get home - to someplace they know. As a result, many times when an Altzheimer's patient begins to feel confused or lost, they simply wander off and try to get home or someplace they think is home.

To help orient patients and keep them within a controllable area of the hospital - without using restraints or isolating the patients, which tends to only increase their agitation - one German hospital came up with a brilliant solution.

They added a fake bus stop right outside the front of their building. They discovered that many Altzheimer's patients were heading for public transportation when trying to get home and were often found on more distant bus stop benches and platforms. So now, when a patient wanders off, he or she usually just ends up in front of the building which allows for a neutral location for the staff to calm patients and a place for them to sit quietly which typically helps snap the patient back to the present.

You can read more here.