World’s Untold Stories: Dementia Village

Given our ageing population, the care of elderly people is likely to be a growing conundrum for politicians. The Dutch village of Hogewey is an interesting case study. It’s populated solely by dementia sufferers and their carers. It has a supermarket where no money changes hands, a constant diet of music (music continues to stimulate the brain after other forms of communication have fizzled out) and no locking doors – apart from the one leading out of the village.

It’s perfectly calibrated to meet the needs of its residents, but is there something slightly sinister about this generational apartheid? This short film weighs up the pros and cons and mostly comes down on the positive side – certainly, it seems an interesting proposition in the light of the various scandals which have recently bedevilled the British care system.