Forget Nursing Homes, This Dutch Village Is the Future of Dementia Care

What if a place for people with dementia wasn’t the end of the road, but a new beginning? Imagine a community where memory loss doesn’t mean a loss of freedom—where residents live in real homes, shop for their own groceries, and stroll through a village square. This isn’t a fantasy; it’s a revolutionary reality born from one woman’s simple, powerful thought.

The powerful thought was born in Yvonne’s mind.

Almost 2 centuries after nursing homes were invented, in 1992, Yvonne van Amerongen was managing one in the Netherlands. One day, she got a phone call from her mother, letting her know her father had suddenly passed away from a heart attack.

At that moment, one of the first things that came to her mind was “I’m thankful that he never got to be in a nursing home” — what Yvonne deemed a crazy thought. If someone who works at a nursing home doesn’t want their own family members to be there, it can’t be right.

Her colleagues agreed, something had to change—because what they were doing was not what they wanted for their own parents, for their friends, or for themselves. One day, they took action and made a plan to make nursing homes worthwhile living. And so, they did.

Yvonne van Amerongen

In 2009, the world’s first «dementia village» was born.

In 2009, Yvonne and her friends’ vision became a reality and the world’s first “dementia village” was born. Breaking the stigma of dementia, The Hogeweyk village is inclusive, groundbreaking, and offers high-quality care.

It’s a place where all the residents have something in common—they all have severe dementia. Here at this unconventional nursing home, they can live a truly normal life, with round-the-clock care and help by professionals, focusing on the preservation of autonomy and freedom.

Things that make The Dementia Village stand out from the rest of similar facilities.

The village, located near Amsterdam, has 188 residents living in 27 houses for the rest of their lives; a vacancy only becomes available when a current resident passes away. Each house has a different theme—lifestyle, urban, traditional, and cosmopolitan.

In each home, 6 or 7 residents live together, receiving professional care and support 24 hours a day from around 200 full-time employees. Among them are home supporters, nurses, doctors, psychologists, physiotherapists, and social coaches who work as part of this care.

A social worker styles a resident’s hair at the village salon.

More than a movie set

Some people have compared the village to the famous movie, The Truman Show, but everything here is real. The Hogeweyk looks just like a regular village, with streets, courtyards, alleyways, and squares in the same style as the surroundings.

For facilities, there’s a restaurant, café, supermarket, theater, and a hair and beauty salon. At the supermarket, residents and their caregivers shop together. The store’s shelves are stocked with everything one would need, products don’t have prices on them, and even the cashier is trained specifically to handle people with dementia.

Dementia is a term for several diseases that affect memory, thinking, and the ability to perform daily activities.

Today, 55 million people in the world have dementia. Statistics have shown that 1 in 2 people will be affected by it, either by caring for someone with the condition, developing it themselves, or both.

1 in 11 people over the age of 65 have dementia, and 65% of dementia patients are women. When one has dementia, they will often feel anxious, sad, or angry about memory loss, will go through personality changes, and will be less interested in other people’s emotions. The most common signs of the disease are losing or misplacing things, getting lost, being confused even in familiar places, losing track of time, and difficulties solving problems or making decisions.

There are a few things we can do in order to lower our chances of getting dementia at a later age, and here’s one that doesn’t cost us anything.