Teun Toebes from Best is 24 and very healthy, but has been living among elderly people with dementia in the closed ward of the nursing home for three years. Unlike the residents, he does have the numerical code to open the door to the outside world. He traveled all over the world with filmmaker Jonathan de Jong to see how people with dementia live. The result, the film ‘Human Forever’, will premiere in Amsterdam on Monday. He talks about it on Wednesday in the TV program ‘KRAAK asks through’ of Omroep Brabant.
Seven years ago, Teun first came to such a department and from that moment on he has had a mission: a more dignified existence for the residents. After three years, Teun longs for a normal life, no longer isolated from society.
People at the center
Teun returned from his trip around the world full of hope. He saw that there are initiatives everywhere for care that focuses on people. And that is exactly the change he has been advocating for years. According to him, in the Netherlands we look too much at the disease and not enough at the person. “I now also see in my grandmother how disruptive dementia is, but I have also seen that people certainly experience so much sadness from the way they are treated.”
He believes that people with dementia are declared ‘socially dead’. “I find it most painful when people ask me: why would you work for people with dementia, they immediately forget? Then you are actually saying that those people no longer matter.”
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“Then I feel in every fiber of my body: my housemates do matter, but also the other 55 million people worldwide who have dementia. Every person wants to matter.”
And so Teun continues to use his influence to change healthcare. His book ‘VerpleegThuis’ became a bestseller and has been translated into English, German and Arabic. There is a theater performance with the same title and now also the film ‘Human Forever’. Prime Minister Mark Rutte saw the film and spoke about ‘a monument for everyone with dementia’. A spot has already been reserved for his housemates at the premiere.
He will miss those housemates, he says, when he moves ‘outside’ again. “But not the suspended ceiling that I see every morning when I open my eyes.”
‘KRAAK asks for more’ is broadcast every Wednesday at 5.15 pm and repeated afterwards. The program can also be watched online and via Brabant+.