Creating a Community Where Life is Worth Living.
Moving from your home into a Care Center can leave many individuals with anxiety. At Johnson Memorial Health Services, we understand that no two people are alike; nor are their care needs. That is why we are changing to better serve your needs.
Just as we are building a new home to for those to live in, we are creating an Elder-centered community where you are a part of the decision-making process.
Elder-centered communities thrive on creating close and continuing relationships, meaningful interactions, opportunities to give as well as receive, and a rich and diverse daily life.
Utilizing the Eden Alternative principals is key to creating a well-being environment for Elders, wherever they live, and those who collaborate with them as care partners.
Eden Alternative is guided by The Ten Principles
- The three plagues of loneliness, helplessness, and boredom account for the bulk of suffering among our Elders.
- 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.
- Loving companionship is the antidote to loneliness. Elders 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 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.
- Creating an Elder-centered community is a never-ending process. Human growth must never be separated from human life.
- Wise leadership is the lifeblood of any struggle against the three plagues. For it, there can be no substitute.
Our vision is to create a community where it is common to see children, plants, animals, and intergenerational volunteers. Landscaped grounds and gardens with wheelchair-accessible paths will also be open for everyone to appreciate and enjoy.
