Imagine not being able to remember the biggest moments in your life. That happens to people with Alzheimer's or Dementia.
A retirement community in Southern Virginia found a treatment that is helping make it easier for the patients and their families.
At 103, Virginia Whitener can still shake it and enjoys playing instruments.
"Does it bring back your dancing years?" asked Shanna Wright, the health services director at King's Grant.
"Yeah. No. Well yeah. I still dance," Whitener said. "I have a great time everywhere I go."
She's no stranger to keeping a beat after teaching music for decades.
But having the opportunity in any nursing home is rare.
Until now.
"What we're trying to do with these visual effects is get that head up and get it going from side to side," said Todd Barnes, an administrator at King's Grant.
Bubble lights, big band music and a vibrating chair - it's not a night club, this is considered the future in psychological healing.
"We really developed it more with therapy in mind than recreation," said Tom Marshall, the co-creator of the room.
"We actually have a CD of Metallica on cellos that we have played for residents before," Barnes said.
The razzle-dazzle atmosphere is used as an alternative to medication when residents aren't happy.
"They still think they have a child to get off a school bus or a parent to tend to themselves. So we can just help to bring them in here to a calm, soothing environment to get them to redirect and to get their mind on a different topic," said Shanna Wright, the health services director for King's Grant.
People with Alzheimer's or Dementia like Whitener are its biggest supporters.
"I had no idea what it is. Where did that come from?" Whitener asked.
More than 40 people have used the room so far.
It's got people talking and moving more that weren't before now.
