Eden Alternative Tip of the Week: It Can Be Different - Bringing Meaning to Life

The Eden Alternative Principle Six states that "Meaningless activity corrodes the human spirit. The opportunity to do things that we find meaningful is essential to human health." This Principle challenges our traditional approach to filling the Elders' daily lives. Under the influence of the medical model, we believe that being busy means being fulfilled. Those seeing through Eden Eyes understand that more is not better. We need to individually honor the events in people's lives. Events should be personalized to the home, the neighborhood, and to the individual. Everyone can play a part in finding meaning in daily life, not
just those with the word "activity" attached to their job description. Lastly, less is more when it comes to filling life with meaning. Here is a great example from the Sitka Pioneers' Home in Alaska.

Ta's New Connection: Her Computer
Let's take a look at how reinventing the activities calendar, to focus more on individual needs, has dramatically enhanced the lives of Elders. Here is one example: Ta bought herself a laptop for her birthday about 6 months ago. She knew very little about how to operate it when she first got it. She depended on us to get a wireless router, so that she could access the internet from her room and get her email set up. After some time, she even got brave enough to tackle Facebook! Without the flexibility in our schedule, her skills would not have advanced so quickly. She found a class to take at the local library about basic computer operations, and she made sure to attend as many sessions as she could. She has fallen in love with the game of FreeCell, and takes full advantage of her ability to interact with her family, who live at a distance, and some of her friends from 40 years ago.

Eden Book Club growing at Hale Makua Wailuku

A few weeks ago, a small group of employees decided to form an Eden Book Club.  The first book chosen was The Journey of a Lifetime: Leadership Pathways to Culture Change in Long-Term Care by Nancy Fox.  This week, our group met in the Lanai Neighborhood and we were spontaneously joined by residents who added to an interesting discussion of chapter 3.  We talked about society's views on aging, and our experts, ages 84-94 had some wonderful insights!  What a great lesson this was in the value of getting out of the "carpeted areas" and into the flow of daily life in our home.

Hale Makua's Wailuku Home Celebrates Eden Alternative Milestone

Over the last few years, numerous changes have been made to make Hale Makua's two campuses more home-like.  The Eden Alternative recently recognized our progress and gave us passing marks on Milestone 1 of our journey.  To celebrate this accomplishment, staff, residents, and volunteers in our Wailuku home shared a meal together, decorated an "Eden Tree" with home-made ornaments, and voted on our next Eden project.

The afternoon of sharing food and stories led one resident to remark that it had been a long time since she'd had a picnic like that, with everyone laughing and enjoying themselves.  "It reminds me of my childhood" she said.

Variety and Spontaneity During National Nursing Home Week

Variety and spontaneity are the antidotes to the human plague of boredom both for residents and staff.

Celebrating National Nursing Home Week at Hale Makua's nursing communities has become an art form, a competition and just plain fun at Hale Makua Health Services nursing communities.

Whether its dressing up as pirates and buccaneers to celebrate the latest Disney movie, performing for a resident audience, or staff from the various neighborhoods competing in silly sports games, everyone from residents to staff and family benefit from this creative set of events.



Enjoying the Harvest

Giving as well as receiving care, the antitdote to "helplessness" can be encouraged in a number of ways. Residents of Hale Makua, Wailuku thought of the idea of an outdoor garden. Gardening from a wheelchair can be satisfying and fun. Planter boxes 6 feet long and two feet wide were constructed, placed on cement blocks at the right height and filled with gardening soil. Here, Mrs. Waiohu, resident of Hale Makua, Wailuku  prepares to wrap the harvest of lettuce for sale to residents, families and staff

Happy Nursing Home Week - Message from the C.E.O.

Aloha Staff, Board Members and Volunteers;

As you all know, this week is National Nursing Home Week. This years national theme, “Fullfilling the Promise” , like the uniquely American phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – is all about living life to its fullest potential.

We are all familiar with the necessities of health care – e.g. medical treatments, nursing care, therapies and nutrition. What distinguishes long term and post-acute care from other health care settings is their focus on caring for the whole person. “Fulfilling the Promise” means holistic care. This is seen when staff give comfort on difficult days, smile when sadness intrudes, hug when spirits sag, friendship to lighten a day, confidence when in doubt and companionship to counter fear and loneliness. “Fulfilling the Promise” produces meaningful, and most importantly, positive outcomes, satisfaction and an excellent working environment.

None of this would be possible without your commitment to coming to work or volunteering everyday with enthusiasm, creativity and compassion, the hallmarks of our Luana Journey. Your dedication to eliminating the three plagues of loneliness, helplessness and boredom by creating a community that supports variety and spontaneity, promotes loving companionship , encourages opportunities for elders to give as well as receive care, supports the cultivation of plants and gardens, and makes possible interaction with children and animals makes Hale Makua’s nursing communities very special places for the elders in our care.

Again, Happy Nursing Home Week!

Sincerely,

Tony Krieg
C.E.O.
HALE MAKUA HEALTH SERVICES

Luana Video Premiere Event

Ruth Shimada

Ali Helm

On Friday, March 25th, Hale Makua Kahului held a red carpet premiere event showing of our Luana video. Hale Makua residents, Adult Day Health clients, family members, volunteers, and staff who starred in the video were presented with miniature Oscar-like awards and made their way down the red carpet. In addition to the actors and actresses, family members were invited to this exclusive showing of the Luana video. Shannon Loo and Koa Simarago donated their time and talents to transform the Aloha Cafe into a red carpet affair, and freshly popped popcorn and sparkling apple cider added to the festivities. 

The Rawson Ohana

In 2010, Hale Makua Health Services was selected as one of four recipients of the Bank of Hawaii Mike Lyons Maui Community Award, which was used to produce an educational video about Luana, an initiative which strives to move away from the traditional, medical model of care, to a resident-directed model of care where residents make choices about their daily activities themselves, and the environment that they live in is more like their own home. The video was produced by Jon Duarte Design Group, and is now available for viewing at www.halemakua.org.

Charlene & Lynn with their mom, Michiko

Herman Kukahiko

This ten minute educational video showcases the culture change taking place at Hale Makua’s Long Term Care communities in Kahului and Wailuku on the island of Maui. The goal of the video is to educate staff, residents, families and the public about how Hale Makua is combating the “plagues” of loneliness, helplessness and boredom, which account for the bulk of suffering that nursing home residents’ face.

The birthday girl, Betsy Ouchi, with her family

According to the Pioneer Network, a national center for stakeholders in the field of aging and long term care whose focus is on providing home and community for elders, "culture change" is the common name given to the national movement for the transformation of older adult services, based on person-directed values and practices where the voices of elders and those working with them are considered and respected. Core person-directed values are choice, dignity, respect, self-determination and purposeful living. Culture change transformation supports the creation of both long and short-term living environments as well as community-based settings where both older adults and their caregivers are able to express choice and practice self-determination in meaningful ways at every level of daily life.

Fumi Nishijo

Violet Decoite

Barbara Silva

BJ and his daughter Linnea

Gloria Destefano & her daughter

Emma Lee with her daughter Stephanie

Viewing the video

Staff at Hale Makua in Kahului thanked

I had to send a big thank-you to the staff at Hale Makua Kahului for all their hard work and dedication. Each and every one, custodial staff, all the certified nursing assistant, business and administrative staff, food preparation and dining room workers, nurses and doctors, drivers, yard and maintenance helpers, and anyone I may have overlooked, deserve a huge word of thanks and recognition.

Of late, Denise Thayer and her staff deserve kudos for all their hard work on the "Luana" project video. The video describes with accuracy just what Hale Makua is about. Also thanks to Teresa Lopes and the girls in the activity room for the way they presented it to those who took part in the video itself -- like a Hollywood gala, with red carpet, Oscars awarded, and photos in front of a star-studded tinsel backdrop to boot. You made all the residents and families of residents feel very special when really, it's all of you who are the special ones.

Thank you all!

Ron Rawson

Kula

From The Maui News, April 5, 2011

Our Newest Compassionate Caring Grads

Congratulations to the graduates of the Compassionate Caring & Continuous Improvement classes held on March 30 and 31, 2011: Avelina Hermano, Benita Eusebio, Brenda Kay Henry, Jaimie Kaneshiro, Janet Agamata, Joelita Ucol, Joynabelle Baldonado, Marilyn Hong, Roberto Caliboso, Serlin Sorim, Ursula Espeleta, and Zaira Katsuda.

Wailuku Gardening Club

Henry Kaina working alongside the students

This afternoon students from the Achievement Academy worked with the residents in the Hale Makua Wailuku Garden Club to repaint planters and plant new plants. The Garden Club was developed and is managed by residents. The group meets every Wednesday at 1:30pm.

Meeting with the Achievement Academy students and residents

Students get working on the planters