Almost everyone has been frustrated by waiting for the bus. But some of the bus stops in Germany are completely fake. You can wait, but no bus will come.
This might sound like a wacky modern art project or a hoax, but it’s real. An article from the International Association of Chiefs of Police explains:
German nursing homes started a trend that has taken hold of European nursing homes throughout the country: fake bus stops for Alzheimer’s patients.
The idea was first tried at Benrath Senior Center in Düsseldorf, Germany, who joined forces with a local care association and the public transportation department to construct an exact replica of a standard bus stop outside, with one small difference: buses do not use it.
…
The theory of why this type of deception works is that in Alzheimer’s patients their short-term memory hardly works at all, but the long-term memory is still active. They know the green and yellow bus sign and remember that waiting there means they will go home.
On the one hand, this seems terrible. Alzheimer’s patients are already suffering with memory and awareness issues. An active campaign to lie to them feels like unethical. We want medical professionals to tell us the truth, right?
But instead, the article shows how this is a form of therapy.
How the system works is that the bus stop diffuses the sense of panic. For instance, if a delusional patient decided that she needed to go home immediately because her children were all alone and waiting for her, the attendant didn’t need to restrain her or talk her out of it, she simply said, “Oh, well, there’s the bus stop.” Thus, the patient would go sit and wait. Knowing that she was on her way home, she would relax and, given her diminished cognition, she would eventually forget why she was there. Staff can then approach the patients and tell them that the bus is delayed and invite them in for refreshments while they wait. Five minutes later they have completely forgotten they wanted to leave.
Failure is the secret to success. Sometimes the best way to help people is to do something which might at first glance might a little dishonest. Sometimes the best system for treating a disease is give people a momentary illusion to help them feel better. Sometimes we need a bit of sugar to help the medicine go down.