The center will open its doors in 2008. It will accommodate a small number of patients and a research center. The building’s infrastructures have been specially designed so that the patient does not feel disoriented or further diminished. Work on the structure of the building has made it possible to create circular walking circuits both indoors and outdoors. An opening to the city to avoid feeling confined. Work on spaces and atmospheres will adapt at the center’s opening with a garden and terraces.
Experts point out that the ideal environment for the patient is a farm. Nature has a beneficial effect. This is the challenge that Marc Barani, the project architect, wanted to tackle by integrating natural elements (garden and terrace) into the center and aiming to make this center a place open to the city. It remains to be seen if such a panorama might not have the opposite effect.
Alzheimer’s Still Poorly Understood.
Alzheimer’s disease leads to the progressive and irreversible loss of mental functions. It is the main cause of dementia in the elderly, affecting approximately 24 million people worldwide.
The process is still poorly understood. Environmental and genetic factors would significantly contribute.
Until the 1960s, it was assumed that the disease was rare, but later it was realized that in many cases, what had been taken for normal aspects of aging actually related to this disease.
Symptoms
The first striking symptom is the loss of memory of recent events (amnesia). Its initial manifestations are minor distractions that gradually worsen as the disease progresses, while older memories remain relatively preserved.
Then cognitive deficits extend to the domains of language (aphasia), the organization of movements (apraxia), visual recognition (agnosia), and executive functions (such as decision-making and planning).
These psychological changes affect essential human qualities, and for this reason, Alzheimer’s disease is sometimes described as a disease where victims undergo the loss of qualities that form the essence of human existence.
