Living in a nursing home isn't easy. It means you've lost your independence and ability to live on your own and care for yourself. In many cases, it can also mean that you're pretty much stuck inside of one building for most of your time.
Anyone would feel isolated in that situation. One nursing home in Florida did what it could to make the experience a little more enjoyable and normal for residents.
A TikTok content creator named Elaina shared the ingenious way the staff at her grandparents' Florida nursing home worked to make residents' lives feel a bit more normal.
"Oh, nothing, just thinking about the fact that my grandparents' nursing home has a section built to look like a real town so that they never feel isolated and can go shopping, to the movies, to church, and arts and crafts without ever feeling leaving their house," she said in the video.
The video showed film posters leading up to the nursing home's makeshift movie theater, what looked like real windows along the walls, and benches sitting next to doors. The hallway was designed so that it looked like it really did hold a small town within its interior.
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"This is so nice for them," one commenter said. "I've never seen this before."
Another added, "This is something that is so good for residents that have dementia! I wish all memory care wings had this set up."
"What a sweet sentiment to have in a nursing home!" a third person said. "They really put thought into the quality of lives of their residents. Love this level of thoughtfulness!"
"My dad worked in construction and did quite a few assisted living homes/retirement areas and he loved building these 'villages,'" another person said.
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Residents of a nursing home are, of course, not prisoners, and can leave with family.
Aging Wisely said, "Yes, residents of nursing homes can definitely leave the nursing home for outings and visits with family. Of course, the nursing home is regulated tightly, and residents are considered to be under medical care while there, so it is necessary to follow certain procedures."
An article from the National Institutes of Health said that more families are involved in their elderly loved ones' care than we realize and that the idea that they aren't is a myth. Still, this is not true for every resident.
Some don't have the opportunity to leave as much as they would like to. Even those who do get to leave are still stuck in the facility most of the time.
It's important to give these residents a sense of normalcy and remind them of their lives before they entered the facility.
One TikTok commenter addressed the fact that this nursing home was probably fairly expensive.
According to A Place For Mom, "The median cost of a private room in a nursing home in the U.S. is $297 a day. That equates to $9,034 a month or $108,405 a year."
It would not be surprising if one with something extra special, like this small indoor town, would cost even more. That would make it less accessible to the average person.
Making only the most basic nursing home without anything like this city street affordable for most doesn't seem fair, but it's a sad reality of the world we live in.
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