Eden Alternative???

Serenity USVI · Nov 6, 2005

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 outdated Accucheck machines, broken down stethescopes and SPO2 monitors, outdated and broken IV pumps.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!

Serenity USVI · Nov 6, 2005

Continued from above....

The fish acquariums are also contracted out. But, guess who feeds the fish? Staff, and not Management or the Administrator.

And of course the Eden Alternative is supposed to have sufficient staff! What a joke it all is. The concept is wonderful, but the reality is absurd. There is not enough staff to take care of the Resident's let alone take care of all these "Eden Alternative" things.

Just my two cents. Been there and done it. And by the way what I have seen happen is that staff will park end-stage alzheimer's in front of fish tanks, and bird aviaries for hours on end. Like these are suppose to be baby-sitters for these poor old people. I actually find in quite pathetic.

I know longer work at this Facility as they terminated me, for probably the same reasons that I write about. To me this "Eden Alternative" is a big joke. It looks all fine and well to the general public. But, how it was implemented into the Facility that I worked for was a big joke!

Just remember, it's not the building and all the fancy dancy stuff that really determines the kind of care that our elderly generation deserve!

ktwlpn, LPN · Nov 9, 2005

The originator of the Eden Alternative is raking in money-it costs BIG bucks to bring into your facility and it is set up in a way that reminds me of the Church of Scientology.Until you contract to start paying the big bucks to train your staff you can't really find out exactly what the training entails....The concept is a good one and attractive to private pay facilities like the previous poster said.Those places are all about the plants,animals,wall to wall carpet and art on the walls but they have dismal staffing patterns (in my experience) The residents at the last private home I worked in were devastated when all of the parakeets started dropping dead-seems no-one was feeding and watering them....

debRN0417 · Nov 14, 2005

Dogwalker...I pm'd you. And Thanks to everyone for the info.