The Eden Alternative ®is not a program, but a philosophy that seeks to address what Dr. Bill Thomas calls the Three Plagues of Nursing Homes: loneliness, helplessness, and boredom. Dr. Thomas discovered that medical treatment is necessary but insufficient for quality of life, and needs to be the servant and not the master of care.
An Elder is not defined by age, and does not refer to the elder in First Nations culture, rather it is a term interchangeable with Resident. We define an Elder as a person who has something to teach us. Sherbrooke Community Centre has been a registered Eden Alternative ®home since 1999.
The 10 principles of the Eden Alternative ®:
1. Loneliness, helplessness, and boredom are painful and destructive to our health and well-being.
2. A caring, inclusive and vibrant community enables all of us, regardless of age or ability, to experience well-being.
3. We thrive when we have easy access to the companionship we desire. This is the antidote to loneliness.
4. We thrive when we have purpose and the opportunity to give, as well as receive. This is the antidote to helplessness.
5. We thrive when we have variety, spontaneity, and unexpected happenings in our lives. This is the antidote to boredom.
6. Meaningless activity corrodes the human spirit. Meaning is unique to each of us and is essential to health and well-being.
7. We are more than our medical diagnoses. Medical treatment should support and empower us to experience a life worth living.
8. Decision-making must involve those most impacted by the decision. Empowerment activates choice, autonomy, and influence.
9. Building a collaborative and resilient culture is a never-ending process. We need to keep learning, developing, and adapting.
10. Wise leadership is the key to meaningful and lasting change. For it, there can be no substitute.
The Eden Alternative ®Domains Of Well-Being
The Eden Alternative ®aims to revolutionize the experience of home by bringing well-being to life.
“Well-being is a much larger idea than either quality of life or customer satisfaction. It is based on a holistic understanding of human needs and capacities. Well-being is elusive, highly subjective, and the most valuable of all human possessions.” – Dr. William Thomas, What Are Old People For?
The Domains of Well-Being are:
Identity: Being well-known, having personhood and individuality; wholeness; having a story.
Growth: Development, enrichment, expanding, self-actualization.
Autonomy: Choice and self-determination; freedom from the arbitrary exercise of authority.
Security: Freedom from fear, anxiety, and doubt; feeling safe; having privacy, dignity, and respect.
Connectedness: Belonging; feeling engaged and involved; having close, meaningful relationships.
Meaning: Purpose; activity that speaks to one’s personal values; rituals, recognition, and self-esteem.
Joy: Happiness, enjoyment, pleasure, contentment.
Person Directed Care
We stress that the Elders do not live in the staff’s workplace but rather the staff work in the Elders’ homes. The Eden Alternative ®focuses on moving away from the institutional hierarchical (medical) model of care into a constructive culture of “home” where Elders direct their own lives.
The Eden Alternative ®philosophy is focused on the care of the human spirit as well as the care of the human body. For too long the nursing home has focused on proper care of the body instead of the human being.
Another hallmark of the philosophy is that staff is consistently assigned to the same Elders. In that way the elder is well known, and they are able to forge close relationships with staff and don’t have to teach them each time how to provide their care.
Care becomes consistent, which is especially important with people living with dementia. In the Eden Alternative ®we focus on the importance of relationships and know that they grow in the moments when staff are with the Elders completing their tasks.
The philosophy also discourages medical treatment that does not benefit the elder. The use of physical restraints and chemical restraints, for example, is in direct opposition to person directed care. No one wishes to be tied up or sedated. Basically, both of these interventions are used in the “institution” to control the “behaviours” of people living with dementiaso that it is more acceptable.
We have learnedthat these responsesare the expression of an unmet need and that we need to identify and meet the need rather than mask the expression of it. To restrain someone must be a last resort and should only happen when the unmet need cannot be met and there is a risk for injury.
Restraining someone is the opposite of person directed care. Sherbrooke has zero physical restraints and the fourth lowest rate of chemical restraint use of the 29 homes in the Saskatoon Health Region. In addition, we have 90 specialized spots for people with dementia. Almost without exception the people who come to these neighbourhoods are on chemical restraints which we in turn reduce and hopefully discontinue.
Education Opportunities
Want to learn more about the Eden Alternative ®, or become an Eden associate? See all of our upcoming training opportunities.
Eden Alternative ® is a registered trademark, and Sherbrooke Community Centre is a registered Eden Alternative ® home. Learn more at edenalt.org.
