Focusing on you as an individual
Two of Linc’s nursing homes, Capel Grange and Penylan House, are both named on the Eden Alternative UK Register of Homes and are two of only three nursing homes in Wales to be on the Register.
The Eden Alternative is a philosophy of care for older people, known as ‘elders’, based on 10 core principles around how ageing should be a continued period of development, and not a time of decline. It seeks to eliminate the negative emotions of loneliness, helplessness and boredom and to ensure that elders live in human habitats, not sterile medical environments. The principle focuses on creating person-centred communities, providing people with choice in their daily lives, combating loneliness, helplessness and boredom.
The 10 Eden Alternative Principles
1. The three plagues of loneliness, helplessness, and boredom account for the bulk of suffering among our Elders.
2. An Elder-centred 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.
3. Loving companionship is the antidote to loneliness. Elders deserve easy access to human and animal companionship.
4. An Elder-centred community creates opportunity to give as well as receive care. This is the antidote to helplessness.
5. An Elder-centred 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.
6. Meaningless activity corrodes the human spirit. The opportunity to do things that we find meaningful is essential to human health.
7. Medical treatment should be the servant of genuine human caring, never its master.
8. An Elder-centred community honours its Elders by de-emphasising 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.
9. Creating an Elder-centred community is a never-ending process. Human growth must never be separated from human life.
10. Wise leadership is the lifeblood of any struggle against the three plagues. For it, there can be no substitute.