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Members of the private Danish foundation OK-Fonden who works on a similar project "Byen for livet" (City of life) in Odense, the honorary consul of Denmark, and Representative of the Danish Embassy, were part of the delegation.

If the Danish project is less advanced (the construction hasn’t started yet) than the French project that should be open by early 2020, the CEO of the private foundation, Paul Erik Weidemann, explained after visiting the site of the Village Landais Alzheimer that he was "envious" of the progress of the French project and that "there are many topics to discuss".

The CEO of OK-Fonden said that exchanges and cooperation are essential to find out “how to postpone the disease, how to improve staff training or how to not institutionalize the management of patients."

A vision shared by the vice-chairman of the Solidarity’s Departmental Council of Landes, Paul Carrère: "Thanks to such exchanges, the idea is to strengthen an alternative model and find new strategies in patients care".  "We have to work together," he insisted.

"There are also differences in our projects and we can work on them to identify the best practices", said OK-Fonden's CEO.

Beyond the different stage of development of the two projects, there are also differences in legislation in both countries. In Denmark for example, it is "forbidden to confine the structure," said Paul Erik Weidemann. OK-Fonden is working on the implementation of a program of "positive distraction": an attractive environment with animations (furniture, decorations, music, ...) should encourage people to stay inside and avoid breakouts.

"The systems are different between our countries, but the disease is the same regardless of the country, that's why we have to work together," says OK-Fonden vice president Poul Erik Christiansen.

In the world, between 5% and 8% of the population over 65 suffers from dementia (that is, 47.5 million people according to WHO in 2015). Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, affects 60 to 70% of those cases.

Although dementia can affect young people, the disease increases significantly with age therefore, with the "aging of the population, we will face an increasing problem," concludes the vice president of the Danish foundation, Poul Erik Christiansen.