Jean Makesh — engrave this name into your head. Here’s a guy who wants to help sick, elderly people, really help. And not only does he want to help them, he actually did something about it. So, what’s so special about him? Well, Jean is the CEO of Lantern, a company that changed the setting of a nursing home and went viral — and that too, for all the right reasons.
The man used to be an occupational therapist in a nursing home, so he knew about the different things that the patients went through, and even what they really wanted. More specifically, he knew that there were lots of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, and it broke his heart. So, he did something about it.
He set out to build a nursing home that no one had ever done before. He made it home. In three locations — Madison, South Russel, and Saybrook — Jean built a nursing home that looked like a 1940’s neighborhood! There are homes lined up as if it’s an actual street. The small houses have porches equipped with rocking chairs and artificial plants. The rooms are cozy and inviting. The tables set outside are tables anyone would use in their backyard.
The “streets” are lined with street lamps, brick columns, and there’s a sky ceiling that changes according to the time of day. The homes even have roofs which cut off halfway when they meet the wall. The hallways are lined with fake grass and mimic sidewalks that make the elderly feel that they’re not in a nursing home at all.
There are background noises, too, like chirping birds, and the smell of peppermint in the air. And the thing that makes it all great is that it’s not just a home, but putting them in a comfortable and real environment correlates with improvement in patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
This project comes as a great way to help these patients feel happy and safe in their environment. For someone who lives away from home and their families, along with battling with a condition like dementia, this initiative helps ease the pain, even if it is at the smallest degree.
“Every little thing you see, the wall color, the paint, actually has a therapeutic benefit, a therapeutic value,” Jean told the News-Herald.
If you’d like to see this nursing home, here’s the video!
