Well-Being

“Old age” need not be a slow crawl toward decline and despair, but instead, a chance to joyously soar to new heights of human growth and awareness. To this end, Eldershire Communities strive to:
  • provide environments that foster community rather
    than loneliness
  • create meaningful activity rather than boredom, and
  • facilitate self-reliance rather than helplessness.

The goals of the current facility-based, long-term care system are simply to mitigate the decline of aging. This system fails all of us. We need a metamorphosis— a marked change in the nature, function, appearance, or condition of a thing: especially a transformation that is not easily reversible. If we acknowledge that old age is simply another stage of human growth and development and therefore reject the institutional model of care, then well-being flows from a person-directed model of care— the well-being of elders, their families and friends, other members of the immediate community, and the greater community.

The programs, trainings, design aspects, networking, and expertise that Eldershire Development Consortium brings to the creation and on-going operation of communities are designed to foster all the elements of well-being.

What then is well-being? It is the path to a life worth living. A study team*, funded through a grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has developed seven primary domains of well-being:

1. Identity: being well-known; having personhood;     individuality; wholeness; having a history. One’s own     history, life and feelings of self are essential components     of well being. Without this, we cease to exist.
2. Growth: development; enrichment; unfolding; expanding;     evolving. Elders have every opportunity to learn and grow.
3. Autonomy: liberty; self-governance; self-determination;     immunity from the arbitrary exercise of authority; choice;     freedom; to be one’s own person, to be respected for     one’s ability to decide for one’s self, to be in control of     one’s life, absorbing the costs and benefits of one’s own     choices.
4. Security: freedom from doubt, anxiety, or fear. To be     safe, certain, assured, have privacy, dignity, and respect.     The security of home and family, freedom from fear and     anxiety must be satisfied before we can grow toward self-     actualization.
5. Connectedness: alive; belonging; engaged; involved; not     detached; connected to the past, present, and future;     connected to personal possessions; connected to the     place; connected to nature.
6. Meaning: significance; heart; hope; import; value;     purpose; reflection; sacred. An Eldershire Community     infuses meaning into every corner, every act, and every     relationship.
7. Joy: happiness; pleasure; delight; contentment;     enjoyment. Joy is a short, simple word describing the     highest possibility of human life.

* Team members were lead by:
    Nancy Fox, Executive Director, The Eden Alternative and     Arthur Rashap, J.D., LLM.,
    now with Eldershire Development Company, Ltd.
Other members included:
    LaVrene Norton, MSW, Executive Leader, Action Pact
    Sandy Ransom, RN, MSHP, Director, Long Term Care         Institute. Texas State University
    Vivian Tellis-Nayak, Ph.D., My Innerview
    Dawn Brostsoki, Beverly Enterprises
    Mary Tellis-Nayak, RN, Commission on Accreditation of         Rehabilitation Facilities
    Joseph Angelelli, Ph.D., Pioneer Network
    Suellen Beatty, BAN, MSN, Chief Executive Officer,         Sherbrooke Community and Region XVII Eden         Coordinator (Western Canada)
    Leslie A. Grant, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director,         Center for Aging Services,
    University of Minnesota
    Susan Dean, MSW, The Eden Alternative
    William H. Thomas, M.D., The Eden Alternative