A home where love and care are paramount

At the home, Chen Zhiya's team tries to help them with professional knowledge, care and patience.

"For example, if an old lady suddenly claims that she lost her necklace, what we need to do is to help her recollect memories about the 'missing necklace'. Then we become a team so that she trusts you and is not so anxious. After looking for a while, her attention could be distracted so that she would forget about the necklace," she says.

To better help dementia patients, the home tries to create different spaces for them to walk around. However, they often cannot find way back to their rooms.

"So we use different colors and patterns to decorate their doors. Some patients may remember that there is a kid or two pandas on their doors, and patients with more serious cognition problems may vaguely remember the colors, orange or blue," she says.

Besides, the care center invited some painters to make cartoons or paint some old scenes on the corridors — old houses, rice fields, and one of the scenic spots, Taohuawu, in Shangxi, which is covered with peach blossoms in spring.

Chen Zhiya found these paintings are really helpful for patients to find their way back to their rooms and cheer up.

Among the classes organized by the old people's home — knitting, playing cards, sports, singing and so on — Chen Zhiya observed that the residents are best at drawing. Every month, in the drawings of each person, they will choose one, which will be exhibited at the care center.

Having also drawn a lot of pictures about the stories in the home herself since 2020, she thought about using caricature to let people learn more about old people and their lives.