MISSION

It Can Be Different

The EDEN ALTERNATIVE

We believe that The Eden Alternative is a powerful tool for improving the quality of life for people who live in long term care facilities. It is a new way of thinking about long term care and it has the potential of remaking facilities all over the country. Before this can happen, however, we need to teach others about what The Eden Alternative is and how they can use it to transform the facilities in which they work. We plan to build coalitions of facilities that want to improve the quality of care they provide by enlivening their environment and eliminating unnecessary medical therapies.

The core concept of The Eden Alternative is strikingly simple. We must teach ourselves to see Long Term Care facilities as habitats for human beings rather than institutions 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 seeks to eliminate the three plagues of the Long Term Care institution – Loneliness, Helplessness and Boredom. We want to show others how companion animals, the opportunity to give care for other living thinks and the variety and spontaneity that mark our enlivened environment can succeed where pills and therapies fail. Our goal is to weave together that philosophy of The Eden Alternative with the practical applications and make it work in the real world of Long Term Care.

Bill & Judy Thomas
Eden Alternative