Romanian hospital plans Alzheimer’s village

The Socola Psychiatry Institute in Iasi, in northeastern Romania, plans to add an Alzheimer’s Village to one of its external departments to assist middle-stage Alzheimer’s patients, Mediafax reported. The “village” will encompass houses, stores, and a sports court, and will be added to the hospital’s Bârnova section. The total costs amount to EUR 1 million. The money will come from a joint project of the Socola hospital in Iasi and the Bălţi Psychiatry Hospital in the Republic of Moldova. The project is modeled after the Dementia Village in The Netherlands. “This ‘village’ will help reduce the suffering of Alzheimer’s patients and will contribute to keeping the people’s sense of autonomy. All the inhabitants of the village we will build will be in need of medical treatment, all of them will follow a treatment. But, above anything else, they will not be regarded as patients but as people who will reside in the respective center having a certain condition,” dr. Gabriel Oprişanu, the manager of the Socola Psychiatry Institute, said. Among the facilities planned for the village are coffee shops, restaurants, a performance hall, and various relaxation spaces, such as a park or a sports court. The medical staff working in the village will not wear white coats, while the sellers and all people coming into contact with the patients will be occupational therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists, physiotherapists, nurses and doctors, according to the project. At the same time, the Socola Institute is rolling out a screening program to detect Alzheimer’s pre-dementia stage patients, based on tracing biochemical biomarkers present in the blood. In 2015, the Socola Institute in Iasi offered care to 2,594 dementia patients, 423 of them with Alzheimer’s dementia. The number rose to 2,690 dementia patients in 2016, with 425 of them with Alzheimer’s dementia. Last year, the institute had 2,622 dementia patients, 348 of them with Alzheimer’s dementia, Evenimentul Zilei reported. The Socola Psychiatry Institute in Iasi is the largest in the Moldova region, and the oldest of its kind in the country. It was built between 1887 and 1889. It received the statute of regional institute in 2014. (Photo: Institutul de Psihiatrie Socola Facebook Page) editor@romania-insider.com