German nursing homes are using a novel strategy to stop Alzheimer's patients from wandering off: phantom bus stops.
The idea was first tried at Benrath Senior Centre in Düsseldorf, which pitched an exact replica of a standard stop outside, with one small difference: buses do not use it.
The centre had been forced to rely on police to retrieve patients who wanted to return to their often non-existent homes and families.
Then Benrath teamed up with a local care association called the "Old Lions". They went to the Rheinbahn transport network which supplied the bus stop.
"It sounds funny but it helps," said Franz-Josef Goebel, the chairman of the "Old Lions" association.
"Our members are 84 years old on average. Their short-term memory hardly works, but the long-term memory is still active.
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