Figuring out your own pace and being able to move freely sounds nice, but for residents and staff it takes some getting used to in Zierik7

People with dementia often have an urgent need to wander or walk, which is often accompanied by frustration, aggression or restlessness. Giving them more – tailor-made – freedom of movement would be good for their general well-being. Not only would they feel more free, but it would also reduce their restlessness, and sometimes even the aggressiveness associated with wandering. This is why we work here with circles of life. And according to site manager Niels Tournoij van Zierik7, we now notice that some people behave less erratically. “That’s what the doctor told me. And that means people are calmer and know their way around.”

Tournoij is proud of its staff and its residents. “Because it’s not nothing that happened. First the move, a new building, a new vision of care, new colleagues. The colleagues are slowly but surely getting used to the new place. From real compliments to them. And yes, at It also has a lot of impact for the locals, they adapt as well.”

However, there are also critical voices about the new form of housing, as he said recently during a meeting with relatives of residents. “It used to be that people with somatic disorders would sit at the table with someone they could have a conversation with, and now sometimes there’s someone who doesn’t know it very well or sometimes has behaviors of call. It sometimes causes irritation. We have an eye for it, and we examine it.” how we can better direct and guide this, for example by implementing additional guidance at mealtimes.”

You need enough personnel for this, and at the moment the training is not yet complete, he says. But he is optimistic: “I will have a lot of job interviews in the near future with people who want to work here.