Dementia 'village' opens with bar, salon, jukebox, garage and more, using Dutch concept

SOUTH BEND — Gerald “Hollywood” Harris easily sank balls as he shot pool in the pub.

Among other elders with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease who were in this new “village” in Roseland, he said: “I like it. It keeps me out of trouble. It keeps me from thinking about things I shouldn’t be thinking of.”

This is Milton Village, the result of a $6.1 million project to turn the Center for Hospice Care’s drab, old building into a day center with an array of normal, everyday ways to stimulate people with dementia and to support their families and caregivers. It’s based on a revolutionary Dutch concept.

The existing, nonprofit Milton Adult Day Services, which is a program of the Center for Hospice Care, moved into these new quarters a month ago. Now the architecture helps to change how it works with clients — that is, to make it easier for them to choose what they want to do.

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