Decorating Our Eden Alternative Tree

Eden Alternative Tree is meant to symbolize each long term care communities' commitment to the Eden Alternative journey and the achievements we have made so far.

Wailuku residents finished decorating their tree last month. They chose to add ceramic plumeria blossoms to the tree, making it look like the trees at Hale Makua. The photo above shows residents Sarah Takatani and Dolly Villarimo carefully adding flowers to the tree.

Wailuku Activities Director, Thaedra Aiyana-Pascarella says “The Eden Tree symbolizes our Eden Alternative journey towards making our community home-like and increasing feelings of well-being of those who live and work here.” The tree is now proudly displayed in the Wailuku dining room.

This story illustrates Eden Alternative principle #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.”

Changing Our Care Plans

The RAC and Activities teams have been working with carepartners and residents to make a change to Resident Care Plans. This change is intended to be a step on our Eden Alternative journey towards resident-centered care.

Starting soon, carepartners will see a new page in the Care Plan Binder. The binder is most often used by CNAs but will be available to everyone who works with a particular resident. Each resident will have a page that introduces them to the carepartners, including a photo, short biography, and a few preferences. The preferences may include favorite activities, favorite topics to talk about and preferences for care.

The sheets are intended to help carepartners, including both clinical and nonclinical staff, see the residents they work with as individuals and provide care for them according to the resident’s preferences.

In the future, the RAC Department hopes to add the new information to Care Tracker so that it will be the first thing carepartners see in a resident’s record. For now, the pages will be available in the Care Plan Binder on each neighborhood.

This change illustrates Eden Principle 7: “Medical treatment should be the servant of genuine human caring, never its master.” The new information sheets encourage carepartners to get to know the residents as human beings instead of just as patients to be treated.

Gardener Cultivates Our Human Habitat

Meet Tamotsu Tasaka. He greatly enjoyed raising orchids and vegetables in his garden at home. As he adjusted to living at Hale Makua, Mr. Tasaka found that he could continue being a gardener by taking care of the flowers in the East Neighborhood. His wife takes him to visit his garden at home, but he always wants to come back and take care of his garden at Hale Makua too.

Mr. Tasaka's gardening illustrate Eden Alternative Principle #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.” and Principle #4: “An Elder-centered community creates opportunity to give as well as receive care. This is the antidote to helplessness.”