Why Do People Living with Alzheimer’s Want to Go Home?

Do Alzheimer’s patients want to go home? Or are they longing for a time and place when they were safe and secure and knew everyone’s name and face?

Alzheimer's patients often want to go home. Did you ever wonder why?

My mother repeatedly said she wanted to move back home to a place where she had not lived for over 60 years – South Philadelphia.

The sound of her voice, the look on her face, the look of confusion and longing, often made me feel deeply sad.

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer’s Reading Room

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Saying I want to go home, to a place from the past, is a common occurrence among the deeply forgetful (people living with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia). It happens to most of us.

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When my mother first started saying, I want to move back to south Philly I really couldn’t understand why. But she said this most nights (around 9 PM) for several years. Once I made my way into

I…

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