Alzheimer’s Patients Turn To Faraway Lands To Be In Caring Hands
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Residents of this facility for people with Alzheimer's disease toss around a yellow ball and laugh under a cascade with their caregivers, in a swimming pool ringed by palm trees and wind chimes.
Watching is her husband, Ulrich, who has a heart-rending decision: to leave his wife of 41 years in this facility 5,600 miles from home, or to bring her back to
Their homeland treats the elderly as well as any nation on earth, but
Kuratli and his family have given themselves six months to decide while the retired software developer lives alongside his 65-year- old wife in Baan Kamlangchay - "
Kuratli is not yet sure how he'll care for Susanna, who used to produce a popular annual calendar of her paintings. But he's leaning toward keeping her in
"Sometimes I am jealous. My wife won't take my hand but, when her Thai carer takes it, she is calm. She seems to be happy," he says. "When she sees me she starts to cry. Maybe she remembers how we were and understands, but can no longer find the words."
Relatives in Western nations are increasingly confronting Kuratli's dilemma as the number of Alzheimer's patients and costs rise, and the supply of qualified nurses and facilities struggles to keep up. Faraway countries are offering cheaper, and to some minds better, care for those suffering from the irreversible loss of memory.
The nascent trend is unnerving to some experts who say uprooting people with Alzheimer's will add to their sense of displacement and anxiety, though others say quality of care is more important than location. There's also some general uneasiness over the idea of sending ailing elderly people abroad: The German press has branded it "gerontological colonialism."
Facilities in
The
A number of European countries have generous national health insurance, but these generally do not cover treatment abroad. Kuratli says the Swiss government would cover two-thirds of the bill for his wife's care if she stays in
Baan Kamlangchay was established by
He brought his mother to
Over the next 10 years, the 52-year-old psychologist and social worker purchased or rented eight two-story houses where 13 Swiss and German patients now reside.
On most afternoons, the group gathers at a private, walled park to swim, snack and relax on deck chairs. Regular outside activities are organized because Woodtli believes these stimuli may help delay degeneration.
He says his guests "cannot explain it, but I think they feel part of a family, a community, and that is very important."
"They are better oriented in their own living places and communities," she says. "Friends, family members, neighbors can visit them. Also because of language and cultural reasons, it is best for most to stay in their home country."
Woodtli says people who have traveled widely and are accustomed to change can probably adapt.
"One of our guests sometimes wakes up in the morning and says, 'Where am I?' But she would do the same if she was in a care center in
At the swimming pool,
"It's a miracle," she says. Geri used to bang his head against the walls of a care facility in
He would sink when entering water. In the three weeks since they arrived, he has calmed down and can swim again, all while his medicine is being sharply reduced.
Like Kuratli, Buchmeier is deciding whether her 64-year-old husband, a former
Nearby,
"If you think of it as a job it's very difficult," she says, "but if it comes from the heart, it is easy."
Like a number of Alzheimer's victims, Schlaupitz responds well to music. Sometimes they sing one of his favorite songs: "Yesterday."
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