Inside a B.C. ‘dementia village' that researchers hope could reshape long-term care

Vancouver-South Coast Residents and day-program participants tend to raised garden beds at The Village Langley, a care facility designed to resemble a small community in Langley, B.C.(Dillon Hodgin/CBC) Gail Deyle, left, sits with her 94-year-old mother, Doreen Freeland, during a visit to The Village Langley.(Dillon Hodgin/CBC) Doreen Freeland pets one of the goats at the facility. She says, at times, she prefers animals to humans.(Dillon Hodgin/CBC) An overhead view of The Village Langley. About 75 residents live full-time there and can walk around freely, but the facility is surrounded by a fence so they can't wander off. It's also equipped with cameras and sensors.(Dillon Hodgin/CBC) Elroy Jesperson, co-founder of The Village, says he was inspired to create the facility after seeing and hearing about similar places in Europe.(Dillon Hodgin/CBC) Residents take part in an outdoor activity feeding the chickens.(Dillon Hodgin/CBC) Doreen Freeland says she looks forward to the company at the care facility and is happy to give her daughter 'a breather' every now and then.(Dillon Hodgin/CBC) Inside a B.C. ‘dementia village' that researchers hope could reshape long-term care The Village Langley caters to people with dementia and is designed to look and feel like a small community Doreen Freeland used to be what's known as a “land girl” in Britain during the Second World War. She was one of thousands of women recruited to work in orchards and on farms to help keep food production going while men went off to fight. “It was fun sometimes, but it was a bit hard other times when everything's frosty and you got to pick those sprouts,” she says. Now 94, Freeland is rekindling some of that connection to the outdoors at The Village Langley, a care facility southeast of Vancouver that caters to people with dementia. But instead of a hospital setting, the five acre facility is designed to look and feel like a community, complete with a store, a hair salon, a local café, a woodworking shop and a barn with animals. Freeland was diagnosed with dementia about five years ago and now lives with her daughter, Gail Deyle, who brings her to The Village’s adult day program once every week. “If we miss a Thursday, I'm in trouble,” Deyle says jokingly. She says her mother gets “perky” every time she visits. Freeland, with a shovel in hand, works the soil in raised garden beds, feeds chickens and hangs around with her friends and the goats at The Village. “The goats are quite something,” she says. “I prefer animals to people if it comes to that." After Freeland’s diagnosis, she moved from Nova Scotia to B.C. to be with Deyle, who quit work to become her full-time caregiver. “She's also legally blind but she doesn't stop,” Deyle says. “She told me once that if she can't play in the dirt, she doesn't want to be around." An occupational therapist recommended The Village, says Deyle, and the activities and social interactions there have made her mother more engaged. “It's definitely a...

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