Village Landais Alzheimer, village that allows autonomy of people with Alzheimer

admin on 20 September 2021

Imatge from Ehpadia website.

Residential complex with 105 people suffering from Alzheimer’s with a high degree of independence.

It is a small village designed exclusively to allow people with this disease to live autonomously, away from socio-sanitary centres and without the constant support of their relatives. Each inhabitant pays 24,000 euros per year and lives in a family-like house, despite sharing with other residents common spaces such as shops and a theater room. Sociosanitary care, on the other hand, is guaranteed by a group of professionals working there, as well as volunteers working in activities to promote the socialization of the residents.

The village is also a resource center for medical and therapeutic research, as studies are conducted there to assess the results and impacts of this innovative residential model.

Characteristics of innovation

Aging, Bank of innovations, Group intervention, Independent living, Innovative organization, Integrated care, Lab, Link with the community, New model of intervention, Personalization of the service, Right of choice of the user, Self-management and participation

Location

Dax, France

Partners/Funders

Landes Department Council; the towns of Dax and Saint-Paul-lès-Dax; the Communauté d’agglomération du Grand Dax; the Mutualité française Landes; and the associations France Alzheimer Landes, France Parkinson Landes, Générations Mouvement Landes and Union départementale des Associations familiales des Landes.

Genesis

In France, the number of cases of Alzheimer’s dementia is estimated to be 900,000, with 8,000 flints in Landes. With 225,000 new cases in the country each year, it is estimated that the number of patients will exceed 2 million in 2040.

Five years ago, Henri Emmanuelli, inspired by the model of the Dutch pilot town of Weesp, near Amsterdam, decided to present Landes as a pilot department for caring for people with Alzheimer’s and other related diseases.

The goal of the project is to demonstrate that these people can live in pleasant, community, and away from the loneliness and coldness that often involves being surrounded by white robes.

Level of implementation

In June 2021, it was one year since the first residents entered the Village Landais Alzheimer. Although their results in patients’ well-being are still being scientifically studied, relatives of patients claim that they have noted very important improvements in their autonomy.

Further information

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e-NABLE, network of 10,000 volunteers making prosthesis with 3D printers

admin on 16 September 2021

Image from Enable the future Instagram profile

Online community of 10,000 people worldwide who voluntarily use their 3D printers to create hand and arm prostheses for adults and children who need it.

Individuals and organizations who wish to collaborate with the cause access the web to find users from more than 100 countries who need a prosthetic and have posted photographs showing and explaining the required prosthetic. The voluntary, then, contacts this person, downloads all the necessary information from the website, and adapts the available designs, which are in open source and free of rights, to the specific need of the person who will benefit. Once the prosthesis is printed, the voluntary person disinterestedly forwards it to the final beneficiary, who often lives in another country or continent.

In this way, through domestic manufacturing technology, people with low resources who cannot access a prosthetic because of their high price and/or the need to adapt them to children’s growth can have a free and customised prosthetic.
As an online portal, each can connect with people demanding from all over the world, although also can easily find plaintiffs living nearby and deliver the prosthetic to them personally.