Jchoice.Org

Back in the early 1990’s, shortly after taking a job at the local nursing home, Dr. Thomas was making his rounds one day. He went to see a woman who had a rash on her arm. In his best doctor voice, he leaned down and screamed in her ear “Hello, I’m Dr. Thomas, what can I do for you today?” He will never forget the beautiful blue eyes that stared up at him as she reached up to draw him closer. And he will never forget the words she whispered, “Doctor, I am so lonely.”

Those words haunted him for weeks as he searched his medical texts and found nothing. And so he began to think about a different kind of world. He began to think about a true human habitat – a place where humans could live, not just wait to die. And so began the story of the Eden Alternative. It’s better to live in a garden.

Dr. Thomas saw that the traditional way elders are cared for in nursing homes is “task-focused” where importance is placed on the tasks of feeding, medicating and maintaining good hygiene of the residents. These things are important of course, but this approach, he saw, was deficient and flawed in that the person was left out of the equation; the traditional task-focused model of care, which is not person-centered, creates a culture that causes the three plagues of the human spirit – loneliness, helplessness and boredom. These are plagues of the human spirit, not the human body, but they can be just as debilitating and just as deadly as any disease of the body.   Completely without malice, these traditional facilities profane the people who live inside them. Like the factories on which they are patterned, they elevate tasks above people, honor routine over ritual and value information more than wisdom. Long-term care facilities are work-places and the lives of their residents are their product.

Eden Alternative was created in order to change this culture – and culture change occurs through education. 

Our philosophy:

The core concept of the Eden Alternative is to teach – to teach ourselves, young and old, to see places where elders live as habitats for human beings rather than facilities for the frail and elderly. 

The teachings of Eden Alternative are based on 10 Principles which are the basis of the Eden philosophy. 

Eden Alternative provides training (through seminars, written manuals and interactive web-based tools) which transforms and de-institutionalizes the traditional medical model of sterile institutions for the frail and elderly and those with Alzheimer’s and dementia into warm enlived homes where relationships and love matter.

What we’ve done, how we’ve grown and what we continue to do:

When Dr. Thomas first started employing the Eden philosophy at an upstate New York nursing home, he brought dogs, cats, birds and plants into the nursing home and shifted the focus from delivering scheduled institutional care to providing for the dignity and emotional well being of the residents.   This is the philosophy employed by an Eden Registered Home. As of 2009, Eden Alternative has more than 300 registered homes (nursing home conversions) in the US, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia. The staff and management of these homes, after being trained by Eden Alternative, continue to work towards deep cultural change through on-going training and dedication to making life better for those in their care.

Eden Alternative has trained over 22,000 Eden Associates; over 100 (CEU approved) classes are facilitated yearly by 50 trained Eden Educators; Eden has 60 volunteer Eden Mentors that provide guidance to hundreds of nursing facilities; we also maintain the Eden website, visited by thousands yearly. All of the Eden associates, educators, and mentors join Dr. Thomas and his wife Judy in teaching that places where Elders live must be habitats for human beings, not sterile medical institutions. They are dedicated to eliminating the plagues of loneliness, helplessness and boredom.

• Each of these webinars will be 30 minutes in length.
• All three webinars will be offered in the Fall of 2009.
• Each webinar will be open to a nationwide audience.
• All three webinars will be facilitated by the Eden at Home Program Director and a representative of the Macklin Intergenerational Institute.
• Webinar promotion and outreach will focus on organizations such as school districts, public sector and non-profit organizations focused on youth education and support, Boy and Girl Scouts of America (we’d love to see Eden Apprentice Training become part of the badge system), and Big Brothers and Big Sisters (Eden Apprentice is a wonderful opportunity for shared learning), to name a few.
• The funds will cover design and production of the webinars, outreach research to determine which organizations do we invite, including how to find and contact them, along with webinar follow up and contact management.