"Time Travel Town"

Faux 1950s downtown being built to help dementia patients remember their youth.

17:07 10 January 2017

The Glenner Town Square is being built in the United States to offer dementia patients an immersive experience so they will remember their youth. Reminiscence therapy has shown to improve patient’s quality of life and reasoning, attention and memory.

 

The Glenner Town Square, which is being built inside a warehouse in San Diego, is a 25-building that will feature shops, restaurants and even a nursery. It will also have a fully-staffed town hall and a movie theatre showing Singin’ in the Rain.

 

Scott Tarde, CEO of the George G. Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Center, said: ‘Nothing’s fake about town square,’

 

‘Each one of the store fronts is fully functional. It’s designed to be an immersive experience and really have programmatic value in each one of the store fronts.

 

‘Reminiscence therapy is really an opportunity to cap into long term memories.'

 

‘Short term memories are typically more affected [by Alzheimer’s disease] than long term memories. So if you create this type of environment, the idea is that it will allow for unlocking some of those long term memories and creating an experience that is really beneficial to the participant and their family.’