Gathering for a trip of a lifetime.

INSIGHT (what we need)

The biggest challenges of hospice have less to do with clinical care and more to do with emotional distress, misconceptions and late planning.

We need to prepare for a global aging population not only with better care, but with communities that normalize the passage to end of life that we will all experience. Saying goodbye to loved ones needs a redesign to the sacred send-off that it is, for those departing and those who will be living with the grief.

Misconceptions and misinformed notions of both palliative and hospice care lead to late responses and bad planning. With a better understanding of the stages of care, levels of support and different therapeutic options, families can better prepare for this inevitable later stage in life before it becomes about pulling plugs and planning funerals. Part of the problem is also side-lining these conversations until you’re in the thick of it: rather than normalizing the situation, managing expectations and having difficult conversations. Instead of making the situation about not wanting to die, it could be about extending quality of life or making the most of time that is left.

INSPIRATION (what we want)

Hogeweyk Dementia Village: designing routinized care in familiar surroundings that keeps residents safe and connected.

In Weesp, Netherlands, lies a quaint Dutch village that looks like most others with its local supermarket, coffee shops, salon, boutiques, theater, pub and brick townhomes. However, some of the residents, though in plain clothes, are medical staff for the rest of the residents who are living in the world’s first “dementia village.” This care town is much less stressful by creating environments that are familiar.

Patients are allowed to make their own choices, go on living their routines, while receiving constant support from village staff – who far outnumber the ‘residents.’ Homes house 6-7 residents with communal areas and have professional support day and night. Local society is also not gated out – in hopes of reducing the stigma associated with this growing group in society. They are invited to participate in activities, dine at a restaurant or simply walk around the manicured gardens. Visiting a town like any other and noticing it’s quirks and differences.

INNOVATION (what we wish for)

Viva Villages: holiday resort towns surrounding major cities that blend into local communities to support near end-of-life patients in quaint and comfortable surroundings where families can retreat by their side. 

• Designed to provide quality care for the patient and the family, residential units are provided for mid-term stays (3-6 months) that are designed in parallel with stages of care.

• Similar to the cruise retirement trend, consolidation of resources and sharing of amenities makes this live-in care situation cost effective: especially if the patient (or ‘traveller’) has sold their home or can not afford expensive at-home care.

• The village is designed with accessibility in mind, with an emphasis around a daily routine that includes not only the care needed (ie. medicine, treatments, bathing, etc) but also pitstops to enjoy nature and visiting entertainment (ie. performers in the local square or outdoor concerts).

• Environments are built to feel like a family holiday, with medical staff dressed in non-clinical looking uniforms, and traveller suites equipped with necessary care and holiday amenities.

• Family members are also given training to support different aspects and stages of care, so the patient is given the love and reverence that is often removed from the end-of-life process in modern society.

• Travelers are given a carefully dosed amount of medically-approved psychedelic interventions to both manage pain and contend with unresolved aspects of their lives as they commemorate the time left.