Petersburg Medical Center Foundation
EDEN PROJECT
Petersburg Medical Center’s Long Term Care Facility is demonstrating leadership and innovation by using the research-supported Eden Alternative model of care as a guide to improve the lives of our elderly residents and the people who care for them. Susan Ohmer, the owner of The Place of All Good Things has volunteered to support the project.
Mission:
To improve the well-being of our Long Term Care Facility residents and their care providers by transforming the community in which they live and work using the Eden Alternative model as a partial guide.
Vision:
To eliminate loneliness, helplessness, and boredom in our residents. To create a living environment where residents’ families and community members and groups are eager to visit.
Guiding Principles from the Eden Alternative Model:
The Petersburg Medical Center Foundation’s Eden Project promotes the belief that life can be fulfilling at any age and that our nursing homes is primarily a HOME, not a hospital. Nurturing emotional needs is as important as addressing medical conditions in our residents.
It has been estimated that the physical and medical care a nursing home resident receives is usually completed over about four hours spread throughout the day. That leaves 20 more hours left to live their life. Even our well-cared for residents spend a good deal of their time alone with just a few stimulating activities they enjoy. With the changes in their life from the independence and autonomy they once had to communal living and physical dependency, residents may experience a sense of powerlessness, monotony, and psychological and emotional isolation.
Historically nursing home life has all too often been characterized by loneliness and boredom. Residents can be withdrawn and suffer from depression which may have as much or more to do with their isolation from normal life as from the frailties of age.
In recent years, those who work in long term care facilities have found that giving elderly residents an opportunity to live with animals yields significant improvement in their quality of life and general sense of well-being.
A large and growing arsenal of scientific evidence shows that pets are of vital importance to the health and happiness of aging people. This includes decreased agitation and aggression in dementia patients, lower medication use, reduced infections, less depression and anxiety, and improved physical health. Increased engagement with previously withdrawn residents is also seen.
Numerous studies have shown that pets can increase the quality of life for our aging population. The affection of a dog, the comfort of a cat, and the entertainment of birds with their colorful plumage, pleasant song, and amusing antics can be helpful for many people, even if they are in the later stages of dementia. Birds in long term care facilities have proved both soothing to residents who are given to outbursts and restless wandering, and stimulating to residents who are depressed, mute or withdrawn.
The residents are not the only beneficiaries at facilities following the Eden Alternative model of care. Among care providers, Eden Alternative centers are finding job satisfaction is increased and there is less employee absenteeism and turnover. Although pet care is an added task for staff (residents help, but the responsibility to ensure the animals receive consistent care is a staff responsibility), Eden Alternative facilities have found little resistance or complaints after the project has been in place long enough to demonstrate the benefits.
In facilities where pets are kept, there is a homier and livelier atmosphere. Residents are happier and more productive and staff are more relaxed. Although pet care places an additional burden on them, the staff report their jobs are actually easier because of the improved spirits of the residents. There may be more noise and activity on the unit, but it’s the noise of interaction and laughter, not of residents calling or striking out or excessively ringing their call buttons.
The cost of adding pets into the PMC LTC living environment will be paid for through donations to the Petersburg Medical Center Foundation for the Eden Project. Donations collected for the initial project to date is $2,125.
COSTS
Initial Project Set Up
$4,200 for several large cages for communal spaces, purchase and shipment of 14 birds (canary, budgies, and three types of exotic finches), books for residents on different bird species and bird care, species-specific seed and foods, supplements, medication, dishes, containers, perches, toys, breeding nests, and accessories. So that bird care and cleaning tasks can be streamlined, the same brand and style cages are used.
Project Second Stage
$3,600 for purchase of birds, cages, and supplies for up to six residents to have birds of their own in their rooms.
Ongoing Basic Care Costs
Food, supplements, medications, cuttlebone, and fresh greens and fruits are estimated to be $100/month for all birds in the facility.
Mission:
To improve the well-being of our Long Term Care Facility residents and their care providers by transforming the community in which they live and work using the Eden Alternative model as a partial guide.
Vision:
To eliminate loneliness, helplessness, and boredom in our residents. To create a living environment where residents’ families and community members and groups are eager to visit.
Guiding Principles from the Eden Alternative Model:
- The three plagues of loneliness, helplessness, and boredom account for the bulk of suffering among our elderly.
- An Elder-centered community commits to creating a Human Habitat where life revolves around close and continuing contact with plants, animals, children and the surrounding community. It is these relationships that provide the young and old alike with a pathway to a life worth living.
- Loving companionship is the antidote to loneliness. Our elderly deserve easy access to human and animal companionship.
- An Elder-centered community creates opportunity to give as well as receive care. This is the antidote to helplessness.
- 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.
- Meaningless activity corrodes the human spirit. The opportunity to do things that we find meaningful is essential to human health.
- Medical treatment should be the servant of genuine human caring, never its master.
- An Elder-centered community honors its residents by de-emphasizing top-down, bureaucratic authority, seeking instead to place the maximum possible decision-making authority into the hands of the residents or into the hands of those closest to them.
The Petersburg Medical Center Foundation’s Eden Project promotes the belief that life can be fulfilling at any age and that our nursing homes is primarily a HOME, not a hospital. Nurturing emotional needs is as important as addressing medical conditions in our residents.
It has been estimated that the physical and medical care a nursing home resident receives is usually completed over about four hours spread throughout the day. That leaves 20 more hours left to live their life. Even our well-cared for residents spend a good deal of their time alone with just a few stimulating activities they enjoy. With the changes in their life from the independence and autonomy they once had to communal living and physical dependency, residents may experience a sense of powerlessness, monotony, and psychological and emotional isolation.
Historically nursing home life has all too often been characterized by loneliness and boredom. Residents can be withdrawn and suffer from depression which may have as much or more to do with their isolation from normal life as from the frailties of age.
In recent years, those who work in long term care facilities have found that giving elderly residents an opportunity to live with animals yields significant improvement in their quality of life and general sense of well-being.
A large and growing arsenal of scientific evidence shows that pets are of vital importance to the health and happiness of aging people. This includes decreased agitation and aggression in dementia patients, lower medication use, reduced infections, less depression and anxiety, and improved physical health. Increased engagement with previously withdrawn residents is also seen.
Numerous studies have shown that pets can increase the quality of life for our aging population. The affection of a dog, the comfort of a cat, and the entertainment of birds with their colorful plumage, pleasant song, and amusing antics can be helpful for many people, even if they are in the later stages of dementia. Birds in long term care facilities have proved both soothing to residents who are given to outbursts and restless wandering, and stimulating to residents who are depressed, mute or withdrawn.
The residents are not the only beneficiaries at facilities following the Eden Alternative model of care. Among care providers, Eden Alternative centers are finding job satisfaction is increased and there is less employee absenteeism and turnover. Although pet care is an added task for staff (residents help, but the responsibility to ensure the animals receive consistent care is a staff responsibility), Eden Alternative facilities have found little resistance or complaints after the project has been in place long enough to demonstrate the benefits.
In facilities where pets are kept, there is a homier and livelier atmosphere. Residents are happier and more productive and staff are more relaxed. Although pet care places an additional burden on them, the staff report their jobs are actually easier because of the improved spirits of the residents. There may be more noise and activity on the unit, but it’s the noise of interaction and laughter, not of residents calling or striking out or excessively ringing their call buttons.
The cost of adding pets into the PMC LTC living environment will be paid for through donations to the Petersburg Medical Center Foundation for the Eden Project. Donations collected for the initial project to date is $2,125.
COSTS
Initial Project Set Up
$4,200 for several large cages for communal spaces, purchase and shipment of 14 birds (canary, budgies, and three types of exotic finches), books for residents on different bird species and bird care, species-specific seed and foods, supplements, medication, dishes, containers, perches, toys, breeding nests, and accessories. So that bird care and cleaning tasks can be streamlined, the same brand and style cages are used.
Project Second Stage
$3,600 for purchase of birds, cages, and supplies for up to six residents to have birds of their own in their rooms.
Ongoing Basic Care Costs
Food, supplements, medications, cuttlebone, and fresh greens and fruits are estimated to be $100/month for all birds in the facility.
WAYS TO SUPPORT THE EDEN PROJECT
- Purchasing live birds through our website or our Facebook Page results in a small rebate from The Finch Farm. Any rebates received will be donated to the Eden Project.
- Donating directly to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Petersburg Medical Center Foundation, PO Box 589, Petersburg, AK 99833. Indicate "Eden Project" or "Birds" in the memo.
- Sharing the shipping costs--If you want to purchase a bird, when the Eden Project is placing a bird order, you could be added to their order and split the shipping costs.
- VISITING OUR LONG TERM CARE FACILITY AND SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCE!
- Inspiring others to donate funds to keep our project active.
