The Eden Alternative – What Is It?
The Eden Alternative is fundamentally a modern ‘philosophy of care’ which at its core is designed to enhance the wellbeing of residents and staff in care settings, the quality of their ‘lived experience’ and their fulfilment.
It aims to build a truly positive culture; underpinned by close partnership working between residents, the team and family members.
It is also designed to empower members of the care team to think innovatively about practice, to enhance their fulfilment, and strengthen retention.
It is worth spending 10 minutes to see the Eden Alternative in practice. https://youtu.be/qK3vTbckZMw
How does it work? It provides training to Care Homes, management and staff and encourages Homes to train their own ‘in house trainers’ to run the programme if they wish.
The philosophy is designed to develop a positive and vibrant culture, empower members in developing a ‘care partnership’ and help Providers to deliver on their ambitions.
How long has Eden been going? Eden has been running such training in over 20 countries on 5 continents for nearly 30 years and started in the USA. It began operating in the UK in 2005.
Eden UK runs both face-to-face training and online courses, which both lead to the accreditation of candidates as Certified Eden Associates, of which there are over 2,000 in the UK and 20,000 worldwide.
The Certified Eden Associate Courses. The online course runs over 6 weeks x 1hr each week, covers the same material as the 3-day Eden Associate courses and comprise 5 elements:
a. 6 Online live 1-hourly tutorials running weekly.
b. Working through the Eden Associate workbook.
c. A series of relevant ‘Eden’ Video clips.
d. An Eden course questionnaire to assist learning.
e. Development of an individualised project that candidates work on to develop innovative ideas.
The training sessions can be completed whilst at work or from home.
Courses dates and frequency The 6-week course runs continuously and a new one starts at the beginning of each alternate month, e.g., March, May, July etc. Each weekly online session runs for 1 hour.
An Eden “Train the Trainer” course, refresher courses and 1 day introduction courses will typically run after the Eden Associate course.
Validation of Care Services Care Homes and community care services are validated by an annual online process, the cost of which is covered by an annual subscription.
Quality Assurance Eden trainers are committed, skilled and experienced trainers, and deliver training in person, or online externally or in house. Training is monitored through a variety of methods, including Associate training feedback which is regularly obtained and appraised. Eden Trainers meet regularly to update course and material innovation.
In recognition of the progress achieved by the care provision an award of Platinum, Gold, Silver, or Bronze can be awarded.
Eden UK team. The Eden UK team comprises Geoffrey Cox, CEO, Margot Whittaker, Director, Sam Bailey, Kelly Boweren, Kathy Smith. The office is based at 11 Plantation Terrace, Dawlish, Devon EX7 9DS – 01626 868192 or 07483359472
The key advantages are:
• It improves occupancy
• It improves recruitment and retention
• It improves teamwork
Geoffrey Cox LLb MSc.,We shall be on stand E44 at the Care and Dementia Expo, 22/23 March NEC Birmingham
