Assisted living facility designed to look like houses from the 1940s to help residents with dementia

This assisted living facility will take you back in time.

Alzheimer’s Disease is a type of dementia wherein the person’s memory gradually declines together with other cognitive skills to the point that it affects the patient’s daily life.

What would generally start as short term memory loss would slowly advance to the stage where the person can’t even remember how to do something as simple as taking a bath.

Sadly, up to now, there’s still no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. The best thing someone can do for a person with Alzheimer’s is to make life better for them through constant support and continuous assistance.

There are numerous assisted living facilities all over the world offering topnotch services and even avant-garde facilities – all dedicated to making the patients’ lives better and easier. But something about Lantern Of Chagrin Valley in South Russell, Ohio sets it apart from other assisted living facilities.

Even though there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s yet, there were countless studies done through the years in the hopes that, at the very least, patients will live a life getting the sufficient help they need.

And, in 2007, one of the studies published in Geriatrics and Gerontology International found out that reminiscence therapy can improve the cognitive condition of Alzheimer’s patients.

Aiming that the patients would have the ability to regain their cognitive skills through reminiscing, the CEO and founder of Lantern Group, Jean Makesh, had the units of Lantern of Chagrin Valley designed to look like houses from 1930s to 1940s. Jean hopes that the environment would somehow bring enough comfort and memories to the patients.

The facility, which is worth $14 million, has 66 units. The units specifically made for patients with Alzheimer’s disease look like they are located in a town from earlier times, with floors that look like golf courses and ceilings that resemble the sky.

Each of the unit has its very own porch and patients would be able to see their neighbors in the next unit. Jean doesn’t want the patients to feel trapped.

Lantern Of Chagrin Valley has its very own indoor courtyard, fountain, and lampposts. And it doesn’t stop there, even the smell and sound within the facility are controlled so that they would be familiar to the patients. Jean said he wanted to “bring the outside inside” hoping to leave the patients feeling better.

Although Jean knows that Alzheimer’s disease cannot be cured as of the moment, he has hopes that bringing back the past memories may stimulate bringing back cognitive skills for the patients – just enough for them to be able to perform some tasks independently.

Rather than just providing care for the residents, this assisted living facility wanted something more for them. He has unwavering hopes that someday, somehow, the conditions of the patients will improve. That’s the truth about Lantern Of Chagrin Valley, it is more than just a residential care facility, because it was built on hope and faith.

Jean has faith for the patients with Alzheimer’s, and that’s something very important, especially for people who can’t even remember how to have faith in themselves.