CarePartners Cottages are secured campuses containing a small neighborhood of three or four apartments. These unique cottages are a great solution for many issues facing those with Alzheimer's and dementia, including sundowning and socialization. Tracy Helling at CarePartners Living talks about the company, their special spot in the area of senior living, and the benefits of the cottages.

Tracy says, "We have four cottages at my cottage community. Inside these four cottages is this amazing four season discovery garden, heated sidewalks, patio heaters, patio mister. So we can optimize the amount of time that folks spend outside, if they wish to. And I was on a tour with a family, and one of my residents was walking from her cottage to another cottage, and she had a cup of coffee in her hand. And she said, 'Oh, we're out of sugar. I'm just gonna go see the neighbors have any.' And I thought, this is a perfect illustration about why this concept is unique.

"It's unique in so many ways. Sundowning is that period of time that some people start to have behaviors, anxiousness: I have to go to my job, I have to go home and make dinner. It could be between 2 and 5 or 6. Some people have it different times. What a natural intervention for sundowning. When we say, 'ok, well, we'll see you later,' and they go outside and they walk on our sort-of-figure-eight sidewalks for a while and that anxiousness and that restlessness works itself out. And then they come back to us and we go, 'oh, welcome back. Once you come on in, we have a snack, or we're watching this great movie right now.'"

• CarePartners Living website
• Tracy Helling
• More podcasts with CarePartners
• CarePartners on Answers for Elders

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