ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, May 1, 1996                 TAG: 9605010045
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: B-8  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER 

ALZHEIMER'S CENTER PLANNED NEAR SALEM

Richfield Retirement Community on Tuesday announced plans to build a 100-bed Alzheimer's center at its complex in western Roanoke County.

The stand-alone center is projected to cost $4 million and be completed by late 1997. It will employ 100 people, said Dr. H.E. Bowling, Richfield's president and chief executive officer.

Richfield has nursing, condominium and independent living facilities on its 75-acre campus, but Alzheimer's and dementia patients need specially designed surroundings, Bowling said.

"Alzheimer's patients wander a lot and get agitated at such things as steps," he said.

The proposed center will have Dutch doors on patients' rooms to keep them from wandering into other residents' quarters. Even the decor will be planned to create a calm atmosphere, he said.

A floral wallpaper can be especially frustrating because the patients will try to "pick the flowers," Bowling said.

Peeople who suffer dementia can have personality changes and their ability to reason is affected. Alzheimer's disease is progressive deterioration of brain function. Richfield has about 30 such patients living in its nursing facility. Once the new center is built, they will move to it, Bowling said.

Bowling said research indicates that there may be as many as 29,000 people, ages 65 to 84, within a 100-mile radius of Roanoke who suffer from progressive brain disease. The estimate was derived from statistics from the Center for Public Service of the University of Virginia and the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago.

Roanoke architects Martin & Associates designed the proposed center, and J.M. Turner Co. of Roanoke has been hired as contractor. Construction is scheduled to begin this fall. Financing is being sought through the county's industrial development authority, which will be asked to issue bonds to be purchased by First Virginia Bank - Southwest.

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