A person-directed care model, this dementia-specific version of the Eden at Home Series focuses on improving quality-of-life for individuals living at home with dementia and their care partners. By our definition, care partners include family, friends, neighbors, volunteers, home-health professionals, and the care partner living with dementia herself. Highly interactive, the material relies on theory, the power of story, and grassroots inspiration to touch the lives of active-care partners and anyone interested in building sensitive, supportive communities open to the unique gifts our Elders with dementia have to offer us.
An Eden at Home Care Partner Workshop Includes Four 3-Hour Sessions…
Eden at Home: Creating Quality of Life for Care Partners Living with Dementia
Session One: The Big Picture…
Lays the foundation of Eden at Home via Principles 1 & 2 of the Eden Alternative. It reveals the three plagues of loneliness, helplessness, and boredom and their unique impact on quality of life for Elders living with dementia and their care partners. Session One also covers the First Milestone of the EAH journey, known as Planting the Seeds – Building Awareness. Participants explore how cultural perceptions of aging, dementia, and care giving exacerbate the three plagues and influence how we relate to our care partners living with dementia. Session One also reveals how even a home can feel like an institution and how creating a human habitat can transform the care dynamic for the entire care partner team.
Session Two: The Antidotes…
Explores Principles 3, 4, & 5, which capture the antidotes to the three plagues. Session Two introduces the Second Milestone of the EAH Journey, Tending the Garden –Using the Tools. Here, participants identify their care partners, how the three plagues can impact everyone on the care partner team, and learn practical tools for transcending them together. This session emphasizes the singular impact of close and continuing contact on people living with dementia; the key concept of care partnership, which highlights the reciprocal nature of care and the value of taking risks, inviting unexpected pleasures as a key part of our daily rhythm, and the joy of simply being in the moment – something our care partners living with dementia model for us with such mastery!
Session Three: Redefining Genuine Care…
Challenges us to refine how we define ‘care’ through Principles 6, 7 & 8. Care comes in many packages – here we look at how to integrate everything learned so far in revolutionary ways that create a life worth living. Session Three deepens our exploration of EAH’s Second Milestone, Tending the Garden –Using the Tools. It focuses on the cultivation of meaningful experiences and interactions; vital communication skills that affirm and validate our care partner’s reality, the Elder care partner’s active role in decision making processes, no matter what her cognitive challenges may be, and how home health organizations can begin to “Edenize” and thus, better support the efforts of care partner teams on the Eden at Home journey.
Session Four: Supporting Your Process…
How do we take good care of ourselves AND each other as members of a care partner team? What do we need in order to work together effectively and respectfully for the long run? Session Four focuses on EAH’s Third Milestone, Gathering the Harvest – A Supportive Team Process, which demonstrates, via Principles 9 & 10, the skills needed to respond to the joys and challenges of care partnering. Teams discover the crucial role of self-care, conflict resolution skills, and shared leadership as cornerstones of their shared success and continued growth and development.
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