The Eden Alternative To Nursing Homes

Dr. Bill Thomas, a physician specializing in geriatrics, is a crusader determined to revolutionize nursing home care. The Harvard graduate and father of five has so far "Edenized" about 300 nursing homes in the United States and a handful in Australia and Europe. He was recently interviewed by Dale Bell of Houston PBS about The Eden Alternative.

I'll put the American nursing home on the critical list. It's not going to make it. It's a relic. It's a left-over vestige of a factory, assembly-line approach to care that is just not going to meet the needs of elders in the 21st century. And in fact, I'll do everything that I can to see that, as we move forward, nursing homes cease to exist.

When asked what The Eden Alternative is, Dr. Thomas replied,

The nursing home takes good, good, loving, caring people and plugs them into an institutional factory-like arrangement. And it's no good. So what I want is an alternative to the nursing home, an alternative to the institution. And the best alternative I can think of is a garden. I believe that every elder should have a chance to live in a garden. I believe that, when we make a place that's worthy of our elders, we make a place that enriches all of our lives, caregiver, family member and elder alike. So the answer the Eden Alternative provides is a reinterpretation of the environment elders live in, from an institution to a garden. That's why we call it the Eden Alternative. 

What are the other components, what are the other criteria of the Eden Alternative?
Number one, the organization begins to treat the staff they way they want the staff to treat the elders. Very important. Long-term care has a bad history of treating its staff one way, not so nice, and expecting the staff to treat the elders a different way. 

Number two, the organization brings decision making back to the elders and to the people around the elders, so that they have a voice in their daily routine and their life. Crucial, crucial to re-injecting meaning into peoples' lives. 

Third, they've taken real steps to make the place where people live rich in plants and animals and children. I want the people to be confused when they walk through the door. What kind of place is this? I mean, there's kids running around and playing and there's dogs and there's cats and there's birds, and there's gardens and plants and ... I want them to be confused. This can't be a nursing home. Right. It's an alternative to the nursing home. 

And finally, there has to be a commitment to ongoing growth. We believe in the Eden Alternative that even the frailest, most demented, most feeble elder can grow. And that the young person who maybe has a difficult home life or is living on the edge of poverty, they can grow. That the organization commits itself to human growth. And those words, human growth, nursing home, they've never gone together before and with Eden Alternative they can.

Hey, I want to spend my final years in one of Dr. Thomas' Eden Alternative homes. Sounds so much better than many, many of the nursing homes I've visited over the years. I found one Eden certified home in Celina, TX., very near to where my son lives. I certainly will want to check it out if I ever need this kind of living arrangements.

Of course, if at all possible, I do indeed want to remain in my own home or at least in the home of children who love me and want to care for me. I absolutely reject the very thought of living in some of the institutionalized nursing homes I've known over the years.

The Eden Alternative is an international not-for-profit organization founded by Dr. Thomas and dedicated to transforming care environments into habitats for human beings that promote quality of life for all involved.It is a powerful tool for inspiring well-being for Elders and those who collaborate with them as Care Partners.

Here are a few more Bible verses to encourage us all even more: 

Upon you I have leaned from before my birth; you are he who took me from my mother's womb. My praise is continually of you. I have been as a portent to many, but you are my strong refuge. My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory all the day. Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent. - Psalms 71:7-9 ESV

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old. - Prov. 23:22 ESV

"Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save." - Isa 46:3-4 ESV