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Prime Times Communities of care Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming photos Resident Rosa Oliver cruises the hallways at Hearthstone in Medford with her pet poodle, Angel. Hearthstone employs the Eden Alternative philosophy of making nursing homes as much like home life as possible, encouraging independent choices along with interactions with pets and children. Pets, plants and interactions with kids are all part of the new Eden Alternative philosophy at Hearthstone in Medford By John Darling MEDFORD � When you walk into Hearthstone, you see dogs, cats, parrots, children, enormous amounts of plants and just about anything else that will help put the "home" in nursing home. It�s all part of a new Eden Alternative philosophy, which teaches staff � and residents � that nursing home care is about continuing to live in a vibrant, spontaneous human community, to care for each other and to have contact with all the normal, positive things in life, such as pets, nature and children. "We�re getting away from the idea that nursing home residents are consumers of care services," says Sally Melton, senior services director for Asante, which operates Hearthstone. "Just like in their lives as younger people, the elderly should continue to be givers of care, too." Hearthstone recently was certified as Southern Oregon�s first Eden Alternative nursing home, following training of staff in Eden�s methods and philosophy. Eden was created by Dr. William Thomas in 1991 to combat the "three plagues of loneliness, helplessness and boredom." The old nursing home model, created in the 1960s, saw aging as a medical problem and built homes that looked and ran like hospitals, says Hearthstone administrator Rose Menge. "We�re getting away from the caregiving-dependency culture and returning to the pre-nursing home living situation, where this is their home and they give as well as receive care." Resident Rosa Oliver cruises the hallways in her motorized chair with her poodle, Angel, in the front basket. Other residents "brighten right up" and reach for the dog, which is the catalyst for many conversations and the budding of caring relationships among residents, says Menge. "There are messes, sometimes, but it�s nothing. We just clean it up. It�s like real life. It helps make this a warm, inviting, diverse space. And the human spirit thrives in a diverse environment." Oliver smiled at her pup. "She means the world to me. I�d be lost without her," she says. Hearthstone also has two cats, five birds, two fish tanks and bird feeders outside every window. But don�t dare call it "pet therapy" or a "program," Menge says. "It�s just what the rest of us have at home � a normal life with community, dignity, diversity, caring and all the regular things that make life worth living. That�s my job here � not to run a nursing home, but to make life worth living." Residents have renamed Hearthstone�s wings "neighborhoods." They have meetings to decide whether to get new plants or adopt a new pet and to choose who takes care of it on which days. "Even though you�re 85 and frail, you still can make choices, care for others and have a dignified, enjoyable life," says Menge, whose elderly mother lives with her cat, Cosmo, at Hearthstone. "You don�t have to get up at 6 a.m. for breakfast just because that�s the program. You should keep control of your own life." Residents have a Green Thumb Club in which members plant, water and weed two garden plots. Staff members spend plenty of time listening to stories of the elderly. And children of all ages visit regularly, not to entertain, but to build relationships by such activities as playing games and writing letters for residents. Sometimes residents engage children in activities that pass on fast-fading knowledge from earlier times. One resident, just before she died, showed delighted children how to pull taffy, says Melton. Caregivers for the elderly always have had good intentions and practiced elements of the Eden Alternatives approach, Menge stresses, but Eden gave them a language for it and a model to replace the medical model of care. Eden�s 10 principles, displayed at Hearthstone�s entrance, include: "To give care to another makes us stronger"; "trust in one another allows us the pleasure of answering the needs of the moment"; and "medical treatment should be the servant of genuine human caring, never its master." It supports freedom for people to participate or not and has resulted in less use of drugs for depression or anxiety, Menge says. "These ordinary things are so important," says Hearthstone Activities Director Jamie Hall. "Pets, gardening, stories, people of all ages around you � these all enhance friendships, bring back memories and enlarge the meaning of the lives we�ve all lived and are still living." For more information on the Eden philosophy, visit the Web site www.edenalternatives.com. or e-mail Hall at [email protected]. Hearthstone may be reached at 779-4221. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.