Monday, April 14, 2008

Day 1 of Dutch Nursing Homes









Today we went by train to visit two Dutch nursing homes - one, a small group housing arrangement, was in the seaside town of Haarlem. The second was a slightly larger facility in another part of town. Both were really terrific, small, personal, and LOTS of pets. The people had their own furnitute with them, and they are were a lot calmer than a lot of folks with advanced dementia that you see in nursing homes. The Dutch have a strong emphasis on small groups (usually no more than 6 people in any house or unit) and also making the facility as home-like as possible. People can usually take their pets with them - there were even chickens in this facility, and lots of bird-feeders... It was an informative trip. I include a picture of Tim's beloved "automats" in the train station, which dispense STROOP WAFFLES (which are way-yummy!).

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting and great pictures!! Looks like the cat was waiting for someone with a camera!!