Petra's Story

When I first heard Dr Bill Thomas speak, at an aged care conference in Hawaii, I got goose bumps. He only spoke for 15 minutes during the lunch break but they were the most powerful 15 minutes of the conference. He talked about being world changers, about going back to basics, that somewhere in our journey forward we have got it wrong and lost our way in the way we treat our elders and people in general. He talked about using animals, children and plants to relieve the plagues of boredom, loneliness and helplessness.

I was hesitant. I am not an animal person in any sense of the word, so this was really going to create some uncomfortableness for me.

A year later he spoke at the Aged Care Conference in Sydney, and for an hour kept the audience enthralled, telling stories, talking about the three plagues that haunt our aged care facilities and a new order called the Eden Alternative. He stood on an empty stage, used no notes, no overheads, no props whatsoever. At the end of the hour we were ready to start – well … Janna, Olaf and I were ready to start.

We had just heard that the purchase of the land for our new nursing home had been accepted and we grabbed our architect and designed our new facility with Eden in mind. Just an hour after having heard Bill, we were committed to changing the way we were going to deliver care. But just what and how we were going to do that, I had no idea.

Through Stuart Shaw at Baxter Village we were able to get a video of the Eden Alternative and during the round of Annual Meetings with Board, DutchCare members, staff, residents, family members and volunteers were presented with the idea of changing our living environments to a similar environment to that being espoused by the Eden Alternative. The reaction was favourable.

Another year passes and nothing changes. We are too busy coping with the bureaucracy of accreditation and some changes to our management team.

Then comes the news that Dr Thomas will conduct some Eden Alternative training in Australia – in Queensland. The brochure sits on my desk. And sits….. I don’t believe that only one person should go and cost of the course will eat into our training budget if more than one goes. And the brochure sits on my desk. We are busy and then there is the cost of airfares… Each day as I go through outstanding work issues, the brochure comes to the front. I have not been able to throw it away. So I put the decision to the senior management team.

Jan, Joan and I are to go. We book in a week before the workshop starts. We are lucky that there has been a cancellation.

So three days on Crystal Mountain. More inspiration, tales of how the Eden Alternative is spreading throughout the USA and stories of lives being changed, systems being challenged. Now I really can’t wait to get started and at every opportunity I talk with residents, staff and the Board about the "new way". It’s not just animals, plants and children. It is not even about those. It is about empowering people to make a difference to each others’ lives and making lives so much better because we truly care.

Like everything else we do at DutchCare I can dream it but I can’t make it happen. The changing of our world must be done by the inhabitants of our world. You are here to learn how we can influence others to make those changes. Together we can achieve so much. I think the time is right. I think the results will be worth any blisters we might get along our long journey.

I hope after the three days we have together on this retreat, you will be ready to begin the journey to Eden with me. I cannot go alone.