Eden Alternative???

Has anyone heard of this? Anyone have experience with it? Would like to hear about it.

Hello,

What is Eden?

Yes I have heard about this, but was so time ago and don't really remember alot of the details. It goes towards making the atmosphere as homelike as possible. Adding animals, music, smells, even children if I remember correctly into the residents every day life. We had an administator who was big into this, but she moved on and it got dropped before I got a good grasp of it. Sorry - it's the only help I can offer

Thank you night owl. We just recently had information given to us at training on this concept. It is moving in our direction. There are facilities that are taking residents and breaking them up into groups of 15 or so compatable folks and housing them in seperate houses /units...it is a great concept, but I'm not sure how they work it all out. I had heard of the plant and animal thing, but this goes farther into the living situation where the care is totally directed by the resident (if capable). Interesting....we shall see...

Thanks again for the info.

I used to work in an Alzheimers unit that practiced the Eden Care Alternative. I enjoyed it, and the residents seemed to respond favorably, especially towards children. My stepdaughter would volunteer there sometimes during my shift and it was nice to see some of the residents smile for the first time in months.

I would love to work in an Eden facility!!

Has anyone heard of this? Anyone have experience with it? Would like to hear about it.

I recently went to a Quality Assurance Forum and the guest speaker was the physician who founded the Eden Alternative. He is an awesome speaker. I'll have to get his name when I get back to work tonight. But the Eden Alternative is another way to look at LTC. It is a Resident Directed Care model not the medical model we all are familiar with. The idea is that each elder is an individual (imagine that) and have different needs to make them happy. Just as an example: homes with the Eden Alternative allow their residents to go to bed when they want and arise when they want, meals are served in a buffet type to where they allow grazing at all hours of the day, and bathing becomes a task that is more personalized. There are other things of course but the idea behind the whole thing is the options of choice not institutionalized directed care (when you eat, when you sleep, when you take your meds, etc.) They are also very supportive of their staff with the idea that if you take good care of your staff they will be happy and provide good care based on their happiness. They also have permanent assignments and are allowed the opportunity to form relationships with their residents which also leads to better care instead of just going through the motions of ADL care. CMS (the government body that monitors Medicare) advocates the Eden alternative and most Quality Assurance agencies are pushing this in states. Check it out online. It is really interesting.

I recently went to a Quality Assurance Forum and the guest speaker was the physician who founded the Eden Alternative. He is an awesome speaker. I'll have to get his name when I get back to work tonight. But the Eden Alternative is another way to look at LTC. It is a Resident Directed Care model not the medical model we all are familiar with. The idea is that each elder is an individual (imagine that) and have different needs to make them happy. Just as an example: homes with the Eden Alternative allow their residents to go to bed when they want and arise when they want, meals are served in a buffet type to where they allow grazing at all hours of the day, and bathing becomes a task that is more personalized. There are other things of course but the idea behind the whole thing is the options of choice not institutionalized directed care (when you eat, when you sleep, when you take your meds, etc.) They are also very supportive of their staff with the idea that if you take good care of your staff they will be happy and provide good care based on their happiness. They also have permanent assignments and are allowed the opportunity to form relationships with their residents which also leads to better care instead of just going through the motions of ADL care. CMS (the government body that monitors Medicare) advocates the Eden alternative and most Quality Assurance agencies are pushing this in states. Check it out online. It is really interesting.

This is the way is should be! I'm wondering what the staffing is in facilities that do practice this? I'm sure its great I would love to work in a place where it is all about the resident and not the staff schedules.

This is the way is should be! I'm wondering what the staffing is in facilities that do practice this? I'm sure its great I would love to work in a place where it is all about the resident and not the staff schedules.

That is exactly how the founder would like to see LTC. He wants people to drive by a nursing home and say, "I want to work there". He made a comment in his speech about how people react when you tell them you work in a nursing home. They either say, "You're special. I could never do that type of work." or they say, "can't you get a job at a hospital". I feel that working in LTC is more rewarding to me than at an impersonal hospital setting. It is the developement of relationships with the resident and routine staff that make it rewarding. As a LTC nurse you get to know your residents so well that you can tell when "something" is wrong with them. You start watching them more closely and lo and behold a fever starts and you can react or you can alert the MD that you need labs because something is wrong.

It is a new philosophy of care for LTC. Supposed to be groundbreaking. I'm going to google the term and learn more myself. Hey Deb, would you mind emailing me? I am also state surveyor and have a question for you. Was on a dreadful survey last week and have a question for you about about pressure ulcer care.

Thanks, Dogwalker

does medicare pay for the eden model of care? medicare pays for skilled needs and therefore seems to necessitate a medical model of care. i'd love to work in an eden facility, but i think it would be mostly private pay patients.

Greetings everyone!

The last LTC Facility that I was employed at used the "Eden Alternative." Personally I think it is a joke! Yeah looks all nice when families and visitors come in to visit their loved ones.

But the reality of the matter is that to maintain all these birds and bird aviaries, aquariums, plants is another issue.

I worked in a County Facility owned and paid for by the taxpayers. They have now went way over their budget, and now are going to ask for another millage. The taxpayers are still paying for a new building.

Okay, here is how it works:

First let's talk about all the plants. All these plants require care. The place I worked for hired a contractor to care for the plants. When a plant starts looking bad, in comes a new plant. We are not talking about small $3.49 plants from Wal-Mart. We are talking about huge plants. How much of this money that is being spent on plants could be used for more staff in the Facility, or new equipement, instead of broken down blood pressure cuffs. outdated Accucheck machines, broken down stethescopes and SPO2 monitors, outdated and broken IV pumps.

Next, let's discuss the Facility dog. A very nice and beautiful dog. But, nobody had time to exercise the dog. The dog became very obese, and developed health problems. The dog hated the Administrator! Smart Dog!!!! The Administrator got rid of the dog. The Administrator is the one that need to go, not the dog! He He!

Next is the birds and bird Aviary. It is huge. But, that is also contracted out. But, the aviary needs to be cleaned, and the birds need to be fed. Guess who does that? The Activities Department. The contractor takes the baby birds in exchange for having the aviary in the Facility, but the maintainence is left up to staff.

Next is the individual birds in the resident's rooms. The resident's can't care for these birds. I was appalled to go into a resident's room to find no water, and shells from the seeds in these birds dishes. Guess who takes care of that? The Nurses and the N/A. There is a bird in a cage at the Nursing Station. There was one particular patient that loved this bird. She would have the bird on her shoulder while cruising around in her W/C. It would poop all over her, but she didn't care. Well, her son who is a total jerk(attorney) got upset and blamed the bird on her allergies. This poor old sweet lady could never be around the bird again. She was really upset, and died shortly after. She was 85+ years old.Now, the bird sits in a cage by the nursing station. Guess who cleans the cage, and feeds the bird out of their own pocket. A Nurse!