Our community is beginning our Eden journey towards a more resident centered culture. We would like to take you along on our journey and each month share with you a little bit about this new culture change. Eden Culture began with a man named Bill Thomas. Bill attended Harvard medical school and graduated as class President. After moving back to upstate New York, he worked in a local ER and on his family farm. One day he got a call from a local nursing home administrator but knew nothing about geriatrics. While conducting his rounds at the nursing home he met a woman with a skin rash on her arm that had been bothering her. He quickly wrote out a prescription and asked what else he could do for her. Her answer surprised him when she answered, “I'm so lonely!” Dr. Thomas looked through medical books but none held a cure for loneliness. He sat and watched the residents for the first time after that and found that the elders were not suffering from the ailments that had placed them in a nursing home initially, but from the plagues of the human spirit. He set out to heal his patients and came to the understanding that no one is meant to live in a cold sterile environment but meant to live in a garden, a true human habitat. We must create a place for Elders that is much more like a Garden-the Garden of Eden!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Along the Road of Eden
Our community is beginning our Eden journey towards a more resident centered culture. We would like to take you along on our journey and each month share with you a little bit about this new culture change. Eden Culture began with a man named Bill Thomas. Bill attended Harvard medical school and graduated as class President. After moving back to upstate New York, he worked in a local ER and on his family farm. One day he got a call from a local nursing home administrator but knew nothing about geriatrics. While conducting his rounds at the nursing home he met a woman with a skin rash on her arm that had been bothering her. He quickly wrote out a prescription and asked what else he could do for her. Her answer surprised him when she answered, “I'm so lonely!” Dr. Thomas looked through medical books but none held a cure for loneliness. He sat and watched the residents for the first time after that and found that the elders were not suffering from the ailments that had placed them in a nursing home initially, but from the plagues of the human spirit. He set out to heal his patients and came to the understanding that no one is meant to live in a cold sterile environment but meant to live in a garden, a true human habitat. We must create a place for Elders that is much more like a Garden-the Garden of Eden!