[1] Christel Krueger, 86, gazed in amazement at a mother hippopotamus and her young calf sleeping on a sandbar, seen through the thick glass and murky water of their enclosure at the Berlin Zoo. Krueger and her daughter were participating in a specialised zoo tour in March designed for individuals with dementia. This tour was organised by Malteser Berlin, which is part of the international Catholic aid organisation, The Sovereign Order of Malta.
[2] On the tour with Krueger, Ingrid Barkow watched from her wheelchair as the elephants roamed their habitat, while Monika Jansen balanced on her tiptoes to get a better view of a rhinoceros. The three women are among roughly 1.6 million people with dementia in Germany, according to the country’s Office of the National Dementia Strategy. The figure is expected to rise to 2.8 million by 2050. Worldwide, an estimated 55 to 57 million people have dementia. That is expected to rise to 139 to 152 million by 2050 due to an ageing population.
[3] Museums and other cultural institutions across the globe have added specialised, barrier-free tours and guides to their repertoires in recent years, some of which were made possible by advances in technology. These include sign language tours for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, touch-based events for people who are blind or have low vision, and programmes for people on the autism spectrum.
[4] Last year, Malteser Berlin designed a cultural programme in the capital, catering to people with dementia. “People with dementia aren’t very visible in our society,” said project coordinator Christine Gruschka. “It’s still a major taboo subject, yet it actually affects a great many people, and it’s important that they continue to be at the heart of society. They have a right to participate, just like everyone else.”
[5] Millions of people around the globe have some form of dementia, which is a progressive loss of memory, reasoning, language skills and other cognitive functions. People can experience changes in personality, emotional control and even visual perception. Alzheimer’s is the most widely recognised type, but there are many others, with their own symptoms and underlying biology.
[6] The Malteser Berlin tours for people with dementia take place at the zoo, the Museum of Natural History, the Britzer Garten and the Charlottenburg Palace, with plans to expand to other locations. “[So-called] ‘normal’ tours … are often too fast, too loud, with too many people and too many distractions,” Gruschka said. “That’s why we’ve made it our goal to create programmes specifically for people with dementia: where they still feel seen, where they feel comfortable and where they can still show that they’re still here and can still be part of it.”
[7] For the carers and families, the tours are a lifeline. During long, sometimes frustrating days of caring for someone with dementia, a specialised tour helps them connect with others who understand the journey. Krueger was formally diagnosed with dementia last year, but her daughter, Kerstin Hoehne, said the symptoms appeared more than two years ago. “What’s nice is that it’s also with, let’s say, like-minded people, that you’re not alone, but that you have a sense of belonging because everyone else might have the same problem,” Hoehne said.
Source: Associated Press, April 24
