Living with dementia

Our author Wolfgang Luck wanted to find out whether seriously ill dementia patients can live a dignified life. For his report he went to Thailand. There, in the city of Chiang Mai, he found a model village that would be too expensive to run in Europe. Ten Alzheimer’s patients live together in a housing project, integrated into the normal village life. Everyone has their own home and three carers who look after each patient 24 hours a day. The project in Chiang Mai attracts many nursing experts from Europe who want to learn from the Thai model. One of them is the scientist Dr. Wolfgang Kramer. He is delighted by the high staffing levels. But he also warns: As for the training of the nurses, there are shortcomings in Thailand. Together with Dr Kramer we visit a nursing facility in southern Germany to see a new, entirely different approach. Here they use a robot for the first time to establish an emotional bridge with the people suffering from dementia. Technology instead of human attention: Is this the solution for the problems of our aging society?

ARD, 21:45 h, 08.05.2013