DATE: Saturday, June 14, 1997               TAG: 9706140001

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   43 lines

ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE A PLACE OF THEIR OWN A CENTER SPECIALIZING IN CARE OF THOSE WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE IS COMING TO VIRGINIA BEACH.

Hampton Roads has long been a region with above-average health-care facilities. Between Eastern Virginia Medical School, Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, and the excellent individual city hospitals, residents here have become accustomed to quality medical care.

Yet one facet of health care has been neglected until now: a facility to deal exclusively with Alzheimer's patients.

Enter the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, which has proposed opening an Alzheimer's facility to be called Our Lady of Perpetual Help Health Care Center on Princess Anne Road in Virginia Beach, adjacent to Catholic High School.

Modeled after the Diocese's much-lauded Christopher Center at Our Lady of Hope Health Center in Richmond, this facility will be designed especially for Alzheimer's patients. Traditionally, those suffering from this debilitating disease were isolated in wings of nursing homes where movement was severely restricted.

Not so at Christopher Center. There, patients live in home-like settings with the environment engineered to cater to the peculiarities of this disease. For instance, lighting is provided through tinted skylights to prevent disorienting shadows, and bedroom doors are painted in a variety of colors to aid residents in recognizing their rooms. Boxes of family photos are prominently displayed to help trigger memories in people suffering from midstage dementia.

Virginia Beach City Council voted unanimously last Tuesday to approve $18 million in revenue bonds to build the center. Our Lady of Perpetual Help will have 120 beds, open to all regardless of race or creed. Ten percent of the beds will be reserved for low-income patients.

This vote was a forward-thinking decision by a council aware of studies showing the graying of the population of Virginia Beach.

A facility like the proposed Our Lady of Perpetual Help is a hopeful sign that people afflicted with this tragic illness will have a place to spend their final days in dignity.

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