America's first dementia village lets residents buy their own groceries

Wisconsin has opened the nation's first "dementia village," a residential community designed so people with memory loss can keep living something close to a normal life. The model lets residents move through a town-like setting at their own pace, with the layout and staff built around the way memory loss actually works rather than around hospital routines. The idea is borrowed from a Dutch design that has spread across Europe, and this is the first time it has been tried in the United States. For families watching a parent slip from the person they knew, the appeal is plain. A village does not cure dementia. It just lets someone keep buying their own groceries and walking their own streets for as long as they can. That turns out to be a great deal. The first residents are already settling in.