Inside a B.C. ‘dementia village' that researchers hope could reshape long-term care

Doreen Freeland used to be what's known as a “land girl” in Britain during the Second World War. She was one of thousands of women recruited to work in orchards and on farms to help keep food production going while men went off to fight.

“It was fun sometimes, but it was a bit hard other times when everything's frosty and you got to pick those sprouts,” she says.

Now 94, Freeland is rekindling some of that connection to the outdoors at The Village Langley, a care facility southeast of Vancouver that caters to people with dementia.

But instead of a hospital setting, the five acre facility is designed to look and feel like a community, complete with a store, a hair salon, a local café, a woodworking shop and a barn with animals.

Freeland was diagnosed with dementia about five years ago and now lives with her daughter, Gail Deyle, who brings her to The Village’s adult day program once every week.

“If we miss a Thursday, I'm in trouble,” Deyle says jokingly.

She says her mother gets “perky” every time she visits.

Freeland, with a shovel in hand, works the soil in raised garden beds, feeds chickens and hangs around with her friends and the goats at The Village. 

“The goats are quite something,” she says. “I prefer animals to people if it comes to that."

After Freeland’s diagnosis, she moved from Nova Scotia to B.C. to be with Deyle, who quit work to become her full-time caregiver.

“She's also legally blind but she doesn't stop,” Deyle says.

“She told me once that if she can't play in the dirt, she doesn't want to be around."

An occupational therapist recommended The Village, says Deyle, and the activities and social interactions there have made her mother more engaged.

“It's definitely a different concept and I'd like to see a lot more of them around,” Deyle says.