Sunrise Terrace embarked on some major changes in the fall of 2002. These included our Best Friends approach to care, primary caregivers, Buffet Dining, and our low-stress environment for residents with cognitive loss (Garden Terrace). In March of 2003, Peggy and Rhonda went to training to become Certified Eden Alternative Associates. The information we learned there was life changing! It is all just common sense approaches to providing long term care for our Elders, as well as improving life in general. It all went hand in hand with our changes we had already implemented, so it was natural to embrace these principles and run with them! We have been busy sharing this information with all of our staff, families, Elders, and community, to gain support in our effort to change our corner of the world. We now have all of our Department Heads and Activity Staff trained as Eden Associates to help teach other and carry out the Eden Principles. Eden is something the everyone can benefit from. It is a way of life, a new way of looking at living in long term care. It is more than creating a homelike environment; it is changing attitudes and outlooks on life.

Eden is centered around 10 Principles. These are the guidelines that assist us in our Eden Journey and offer us insight into the possibilities we can can accomplish. They are just guidelines, we interpret them ourselves and decide how they can best benefit our home and lives. the possibilities are endless-however, our resources are not! All of our Eden projects are independent from the general budget. We earn all the monies needed for our Eden projects through fundraisers, donations, memorials, etc.

Following are the 10 Eden Principles. Click on the Principle to lear how they have effected our endeavor to create a life worth living for our Elders. (An Elder is someone who by virtue of life experience, has wisdom to share. So our residents are Elders, and that is to whom I refer here, but we can all be Elders as we all have wisdom to share.)

~~ EDEN PRINCIPLES ~~

1. The three plagues of loneliness, helplessness and boredom account for the bulk of suffering among our elders.
2. 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. The 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 growth.
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.