The Hogeweyk® Reflections

THE VILLAGE WASN’T THE LESSON

When I booked my travel arrangements to the Netherlands, I anticipated going there to study a dementia village. Like many people, I had seen articles and videos describing The Hogeweyk® – a community where people living with advanced dementia move freely through streets, visit cafés, shop for groceries, and live in homes instead of traditional nursing units.

This is a concept many of us in the United States think sounds amazing, but the conversation often leads back to one question:
“How do we recreate this village?”

After spending several days there, I came home asking a different question:
“What if the true innovation wasn’t the village at all but the culture that made the village possible?”