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Tuesday, January 20, 2026
As reported by Kimberly Wethal, Wisconsin State Journal
Agrace Hospice Care is planning to construct what it says will be a first-of-its-kind “dementia village” in the U.S. at its Fitchburg care facility, as it grapples with rising occurrences of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in patients and high rates of caregiver burnout.
The $30 million project, which was announced Tuesday, aims to establish a “kinder” approach to memory care that allows patients to maintain their sense of autonomy and quality of life by implementing a Dutch dementia village concept called “Hogeweyk” (pronounced HOG-wick) that turns traditional memory care on its head.
Rather than remove people with dementia from the hum of everyday life and house them in institutional, hospital-style nursing facilities with stringent security, the Hogeweyk model seeks to mimic the life they already know while providing little-noticed guardrails. Doctors and nurses don’t wear scrubs and act more like friends and neighbors.
Traditional hospital-like settings are often stressful for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients, Agrace Vice President of Medical Services Dr. Hilary Bingol said.
For those with more advanced disease who are no longer able to form memories, waking up each day in what feels like a hospital rather than at home can be confusing and frightening, Bingol said. The hard floors, echoing noises and the sound of bells and alarms can feel chaotic.
With traditional memory care, the trajectory is predictable, Bingol said: a steady, irreversible decline. Experience in the Hogeweyk model finds patients largely plateau and only decline rapidly just before they die, she said.
“Our hope is by creating this model similar to Hogeweyk, and really focusing on the quality of their life and comfort, that we can see a similar plateau where people will be able to really engage and enjoy up until the very end of their life,” Bingol said.
Agrace’s village will consist of eight “houses,” each with eight bedrooms, that include shared home-style amenities like a kitchen and a living room. The houses will be split into different themes to match residents’ life experiences and aid in “reminiscence therapy,” which relies on tapping into people’s memories to help improve brain health.
House themes in the Dutch model center around life experiences such as a past career in the trades, a life as a homemaker or the person’s religious faith. Agrace’s model will have three themes, which are still being honed but are expected to center on Midwestern values and the Madison-area life experiences.
Built in an oval around a courtyard, the northern side of the village is expected to have common spaces similar to those patients encountered in everyday life before their diagnoses, such as a small convenience store, a theater, a salon and a fitness center.
The dementia village will be the first in the U.S., Agrace said, even as a nonprofit in Sheboygan breaks ground on a similar concept to be named Livasu, short for “live as usual.” The Livasu development will allow people with dementia and Alzheimer’s to own homes and live with their loved ones or bring in hired help, while Agrace’s version more closely mirrors the Hogeweyk model, Agrace CEO Lynne Sexten said.
Sheboygan’s will also be nearly twice the size, with 124 manufactured homes to Agrace’s 64 living units. Both concepts will have staff on-site to help residents.
Other copycats of the Hogeweyk model have been attempted elsewhere in the U.S. but eventually strayed from the original intent, Sexten said.
“What we’re very committed to doing is bringing this model, lock, stock and barrel to the United States,” Sexten said.
Most of Agrace’s hospice care work is done in people’s homes and assisted living centers, where staff are faced with a grim reality: caregivers who are burned out, in financial turmoil or facing health challenges of their own, often because of the toll caring for a love one takes on them.
About half the people Agrace serves, both on and off campus, are experiencing some kind of cognitive decline, a “tremendous uptick,” Sexten said. Twelve of the rooms on Agrace’s campus have been reassigned to memory care.
The rising need prompted Agrace’s leaders to look for different ways to meet the community’s need.
“You don’t see a lot of really happy people in memory care units,” Sexten said. “There’s wonderful people that own and work in these kinds of facilities. It’s just, memory care in our country is structured a certain way. We started talking about, ‘Is there a better model out there?’”
Agrace already offers memory care services not directly tied to hospice. Its Adult Day Center on the Beltline between Fish Hatchery Road and Todd Drive attempts to help. Monday through Friday, dozens of people with dementia and Alzheimer’s are given a place where staff lead them through activities such as arts and crafts, exercise and sing-alongs.
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