From Library Journal
Most American nursing homes spend far too much time treating chronic diseases and too little time providing compassionate care, asserts the author, a physician and former director of the Chase Memorial Nursing Home. In 1991, Thomas decided to try a different approach to life for the 80 residents of this upstate New York facility?an approach he calls the Eden Alternative. Motivated by a desire to enrich the home's physical and social environment, the staff introduced hundreds of indoor plants, 80 parakeets, dogs, cats, and other living things to share life with residents. Lawns became vegetable gardens, tended by staff and residents. A day-care center, after-school programs, and a summer camp brought children into the home. This book is an inspiring account of Edenizing this particular home, emphasizing the benefits to residents and staff. Although it offers how-to steps for humanizing homes elsewhere, it lacks the specifics needed to help the Eden Alternative succeed in larger, urban nursing facilities and other settings. Also not covered are difficulties this approach may present (e.g., demented residents who may be frightened of animals). For strong aging collections.?Karen McNally Bensing, Benjamin Rose Inst. Lib., ClevelandCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
There is at last an alternative for those who see nursing homes as little more than glorified hospitals. Dr. Thomas, a nursing home medical director in upstate New York, offers the Eden Alternative in which the loneliness, helplessness, and boredom of life in a conventional facility are obliterated and "care" is substituted for superficial "treatment." Thomas provides frighteningly simple methods for dropping long-held assumptions about nursing homes and turning them into places where residents can have reasons to live. He replaces the overmedication, treatment plans, and restricted diets of traditional homes with gardens, pets, plants, and children. His book gives concrete plans for implementing the Eden Alternative, assesses and debunks its risks, and suggests methods to empower nursing home staff, who, in turn, empower their residents. The 10 Eden Principles can be enacted by any facility that desires to help the elderly reconnect with the world and put the "home" back into nursing home. This book offers a splendid solution for those who feel that death might be the best alternative to old age. A provocative, inspiring, hopeful work. Patricia Hassler


Len Hansen, “Mainly for Seniors”
"worthwhile and perhaps lifesaving reading for mature adults and their adult children"


Library Journal
"an inspiring account"


Publishers Weekly
"For those dealing with institutionalization, Thomas provides hope that this does not have to be the experience dreaded by many."


Book Description
The grassroots handbook for Edenizing nursing homes.


About the Author
Bill Thomas is a Harvard-educated medical doctor with a special concern for the elderly and a gift for storytelling. Dr. Thomas is a native of upstate New York and attended the State University College at Cortland, where he earned a B.S. in Biology, summa cum laude, in 1982. Before graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1986, Bill served as one of the founding editors of Murmurs, a quarterly journal of opinion. A three-year residency in Family Medicine at the University of Rochester followed medical school, and, in his third year of training, Bill was selected by the Mead Johnson Foundation as one of the top Family Medicine residents in the country. Now Board Certified in Family Medicine and Geriatrics, Dr. Thomas has settled into a rural corner of Chenango County with his wife and partner, Judy Meyers-Thomas, as well as their five children, Zachary, Virgil, Haleigh Jane, Hannah, and Caleb. Dr. Thomas enjoys a professional life that includes patient care, medical administration, teaching, research and writing, advocacy, public speaking, and developing software and information-technology solutions for health care organizations. Since 1991, Bill and Judy have worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life for nursing home residents everywhere. Their work, known as the Eden Alternative, has attracted international attention and is transforming the way we think about and care for our elders.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Life Worth Living is the book you are looking for, if you want to ensure the best life possible for someone in a nursing home. The author describes a program that eliminates the three plagues of nursing homes: loneliness, helplessness, and boredom.

The "Eden Alternative" transforms nursing homes into lush, lively human habitats. Gardens, animals, birds, and children bring life and involvement to settings once associated with death and infirmity. Residents' lives are changed.

This book provides the how-to steps for "Edenizing" anywhere, steps that can be followed by both staff and family members. The Eden Alternative is returning hope to the residents of nursing homes.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal