Eden Alternative Principles and Mission Statement - for Elderly people in Aged Care Facilities everywhere

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The Eden Alternative Ten Principles1. The three plagues of loneliness, helplessness and boredom account for the bulk of suffering among our Elders.2. 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.3. Loving companionship is the antidote to loneliness. Elders deserve easy access to human and animal companionship.4. An Elder-centered community creates opportunity to give as well as receive care. This is the antidote to helplessness.5. 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.6. Meaningless activity corrodes the human spirit. The opportunity to do things that we find meaningful is essential to human health.7. Medical treatment should be the servant of genuine human caring, never its master.8. 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.9. Creating an Elder-centered community is a never-ending process. Human growth must never be separated from human life.10. Wise leadership is the lifeblood of any struggle against the three plagues. For it, there can be no substitute.

The Eden Alternative"It Can Be Different"

Our Mission StatementThe 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, Hopelessness, 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 to strengthen human relationships, foster human-animal bonds, and create opportunities to give meaningful care to other living creatures. We know that enlivened environments, rich in variety and spontaneity, can create a life worth living where pills and treatment fail. Our goal is to help people weave together the philosophy of The Eden Alternative™ with the real world of daily practice.