Eden Alternative
What is the Eden Alternative?
The Eden Alternative™ has the potential of remaking the experience of aging and disability across America and around the world. It is a powerful tool for improving quality of life. To make that happen, however, we need to teach others about what The Eden Alternative™ is and how they can use it to transform the communities in which they work. We create coalitions of people and organizations that are committed to creating better social and physical environments for people. We are dedicated to helping others create enlivening environments and the elimination of the plagues of Loneliness, Helplessness, and Boredom. We are dedicated to helping people grow.
The core concept of The Eden Alternative™ is strikingly simple. We must teach ourselves to see the environments as habitats for human beings rather than facilities for the frail and elderly. We must learn what Mother Nature has to teach us about the creation of vibrant, vigorous habitats.
The Eden Alternative™ shows us how companion animals, the opportunity to give meaningful care to other living creatures, and the variety and spontaneity that mark an enlivened environment can succeed where pills and therapies fail. Our goal is to help people weave together the philosophy of The Eden Alternative™ with the real world of daily practice.
The Eden Alternative Principles
- The three plagues of loneliness, helplessness and boredom account for the bulk of suffering among our Elders.
- An Elder-centered community commits to creating a Human Habitat where life revolves around close and continuing contact with plants, animals and children. It is these relationships that provide the young and old alike with a pathway to a life worth living.
- Loving companionship is the antidote to loneliness. Elders deserve easy access to human and animal companionship.
- An Elder-centered community creates opportunity to give as well as receive care. This is the antidote to helplessness.
- An Elder-centered community imbues daily life with variety and spontaneity by creating an environment in which unexpected and unpredictable interactions and happenings can take place. This is the antidote to boredom.
- Meaningless activity corrodes the human spirit. The opportunity to do things that we find meaningful is essential to human health.
- Medical treatment should be the servant of genuine human caring, never its master.
- An Elder-centered community honors its Elders by de-emphasizing top-down bureaucratic authority, seeking instead to place the maximum possible decision-making authority into the hands of the Elders or into the hands of those closest to them.
- Creating an Elder-centered community is a never-ending process. Human growth must never be separated from human life.
- Wise leadership is the lifeblood of any struggle against the three plagues. For it, there can be no substitute.
The Eden Alternative
Mission: To improve the well-being of Elders and those who care for them by transforming the communities in which they live and work.
Vision: To eliminate loneliness, helplessness, and boredom.
Values: The Eden Alternative Ten Principles
The purpose of the Eden Tree is to display the symbols an organization will choose
(shown here as stars) as they implement the Eden Alternative™ philosophy. There are TEN PRINCIPLES,
and The Eden Alternative Handbook (a companion book to Learning From Hannah) provides for you a
pathway to implementing each principle. As each section in the Handbook is completed, a symbol is
added for that section/principle. The Eden Tree, is a principle-driven reward system designed to
honor and celebrate those who give great care.
Eden Alternative™ Associates are people who have completed a 3 to 4 day training in the principles and practices of the Eden Alternative™. When we first started out, we thought we could teach people to teach others about Eden in just a couple of hours. It turns out that we can’t. As a result, we have developed the Associate Training. Over 7,000 people have gone through the training at this point and the results have been very encouraging.
The Associate Training teaches the Ten Principles of the Eden Alternative™ and gives specific suggestions and guidelines for putting them into practice. Also, it helps us learn about each other and create communities of support after we leave the training, roll up our sleeves and go to work teaching, preparing for and implementing the Eden Alternative™ philosophy.
Elant held an Eden Associate Training open to the public in the fall of 2006 at Glen Arden. The Elant Skilled Nursing facilities have now trained a total of thirty employees as Eden Associates. The Eden Associates serve as trainers and exemplify the Eden philosophy in their daily interactions.
In the fall of 2006 Elant at Goshen, Glen Arden and Elant at Newburgh received recognition as Eden Registered Facilities. Each facility has demonstrated its commitment to the Eden Philosophy and has demonstrated they have begun the Eden Culture Change Journey. Included in the application process each facility has developed their own Eden Mission and Vision Statement that supports the Elant Inc. Mission and Vision and in addition reflects the Eden philosophy.
EDEN REGISTERED HOMES - REGION 1 (New York State is
included in region 1)New York:
Clara Welch Thanksgiving Home
48 Grove Street -
Cooperstown, New York 13326
Contact Person: Patricia Donnelly
Contact Number: 607-547-8844
Registered: 3/27/2004
Email:
pdonnelly@clarawelchthanksgivinghome.org
Web site:
www.clarawelchthanksgivinghome.org
Elant at Goshen, Inc.
46 Harriman Drive -
Goshen, New York 10924
Contact Person: Vincent Maniscalco, Associate Administrator/CEA
Contact Number: 845-291-3700
Registered: 8/31/2006
Email: vmaniscalco@elant.org
Web site: www.elant.org
Elant at Newburgh, Inc.
172 Meadow Hill Road -
Newburgh, New York 12550
Contact Person: Cheryl Dorn, VP & Executive Director/CEA
Contact Number: 845-564-1700
Registered: 8/31/2006
Email: cdorn@elant.org
Web site: www.elant.org
Glen Arden, Inc.
46 Harriman Drive -
Goshen, New York 10924
Contact Person: Maureen Coughlin, VP & Executive Director/CEA
Contact Number: 845-291-3700
Registered: 8/31/2006
Email: mcoughlin@elant.org
Web site: www.elant.org
Rochester Presbyterian Home
256 Thurston Road -
Rochester, New York 14619
Contact Person: Nancy Smyth
Contact Number: 585-235-9100
Registered: 4/09/2002
St. John’s Home
150 Highland. Ave -
Rochester NY 14620
Contact Person: Veronica Barber
Contact Number: 585-271-5413
Registered: 8/26/2003
Web site: www.stjohnshome.com
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