Breezicht in IJmuiden has set up a campsite in the middle garden of its care center for elderly people with dementia. There are bungalow and dome tents, there is a makeshift wet cell for washing dishes, there is a badminton net and there is a swimming pool. All this with the intention of giving the residents the feeling of the past.
“Many of our residents have camped in the past,” says Sylvia Schilling, one of the initiators. “We would like to let them relive that nice feeling. And it turns out that it works very well. If you ask them about that time, you actually get no answer. But when you set up such a campsite, everything comes to life and they talk one hundred.”
It is drizzly on the morning of the opening. Just as the residents remember from their holidays in their own country. Because of the rain here, Gerda, one of the residents, often used to go to France. Lying in her hammock, she says: “I have great memories of those holidays. Camping, hiking and going to the sea. It’s nice to relive everything here. It’s just like the old days!”
Vacation time
Carola Zwanenburg, one of the activity supervisors, explains that Breezicht does everything it can to make people’s stay as pleasant as possible. “We organize as many activities as possible, but you do not completely prevent many days and seasons from looking alike for the residents. We have now set up this campsite to break through, so that people experience that the holiday season has started.”
They don’t sleep there, they do that in their own bed, but otherwise camping life is imitated as much as possible. Typical games are played, such as badminton and petanque, and there is barbecue. But we are mainly looking forward to Thursday. Then is the famous motley evening. “I’m really looking forward to that,” says one of the residents. Looking at the gray sky with a slanted eye: “If the weather forecasts are right, we’ll have better weather than we have now.”