Imagine if you will, a place of total comfort, hygiene, dignity, safety and freedom from responsibility. This is what I propose for the elderly demented population, which will include any of us, unless we die of other causes first. Senescent or senile dementia is inevitable, although one may be of centenarian status to join the ranks of the demented. Current facilities are oriented to approach dementia as a disease, offering medical treatment for intellectual impairment and agitation. While some dementias are indeed a reflection of a defined disease state such as Parkinson disease, Pick disease, Huntington chorea, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and presenile dementia (Alzheimer disease), the vast majority of demented residents are beyond the usual American lifespan of 78 to 80 years and are intellectually impaired because of senile dementia, which happens to exhibit the same neuropathology as presenile dementia of Alzheimer.

Recently, the condition known as “mild cognitive impairment” has been shown, by autopsy study, to be early Alzheimer type dementia. Additionally, patients in this early stage of dementia are at increased risk of suicide, likely because of the horror of the awareness of losing their intellect and the fear of what may lie ahead. At this point in medical history, with an impending upsurge in the total number of demented adults expected as Baby Boomers reach their seventies, such fears are well founded. We do not have an acceptable model of care for demented rock ‘n’ rollers. The DementoDome could supplant these fears and substitute an eager anticipation of aging with security.