THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 31, 1995 TAG: 9512280159
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Long : 190 lines
IN WHAT USED to be a place symbolic of emptiness and endings, birds chatter and cats purr.
In what many have considered a prison that shut in the aged from life itself, a little dog now scampers among visiting children.
At Britthaven of the Outer Banks Nursing Center, efforts are underway to return to residents some of the natural balance of life that age and illness forced them to leave behind.
The Eden Alternative, focused on transforming the nursing home environment into a ``human habitat,'' was introduced at Britthaven in May. The national program to reduce residents' dependence on drugs and increase their interaction with the outside world has changed the nursing home's atmosphere dramatically.
Now, as part of the program, the 144 residents share their living space with two rabbits, three cats, a multitude of birds and hundreds of plants.
``Children and pets really bring out the best in people,'' says Richard L. Blackmon, Britthaven's administrator. ``People need to be needed, to be loved.''
Blackmon's dog, Peaches, a 3-year-old miniature poodle, comes to work with him and is currently the only dog regularly on the premises. Friendly, well-mannered and irresistably cute, Peaches is greeted warmly by all the residents as she winds in and out of rooms and hallways.
``I hope she has a mutual affection for me,'' one woman says softly as she cuddles the little dog. Peaches, garbed in a small bandana, charms the resident with a nuzzle before moving on to other visits.
Ruby Best, resting on her bed, lights up at the sight of the poodle. ``Hey, ol' pretty thing,'' she calls.
Telling a visitor she had a cockapoo she adored before moving to Britthaven, Best invites Peaches onto her bed, where she lifts the dog in front of her face like a baby.
``Well, at least my dog kissed me,'' Best, 88, teases Peaches, who good-naturedly tolerates a small lecture on manners and some rocking. ``Don't you love me just a little tiny bit?''
The truth seems to be that Peaches loves everyone, and everyone loves her. Residents reach out to pet her from wheelchairs and beds. The dog does not discriminate between lucid residents or Alzheimer's patients, peppy or feeble, young or old.
Blackmon says he's pleased and surprised at how well Peaches has been received. He confesses he hesitated before finally deciding to bring her to work this summer, not knowing how she would fit in.
But she quickly made it her second home where she meets visitors, plays with the rabbits and participates in all the goings-on that interest her.
Blackmon's goal is to make Britthaven a permanent home for two or three dogs and four cats. Eventually, he also wants a complete gardening area outside that residents can help tend.
Children in school and community groups visit often, but so far there is no regular program to involve the residents with younger people, Blackmon says.
Even in the Eden Alternative's early stages of evolution at Britthaven, the nursing home is bursting with life and activity, not the unpleasant gloominess people have learned to expect when entering such a facility.
Homeless cats that live outside the center - neutered and spayed thanks to community donations - feast on table scraps left for them by the staff.
The front great room houses an aviary filled with canaries; a pair of lovebirds reside in a cage in the corner; a mother and baby rabbit live in a hutch against the opposite wall; huge plants dot the entire room.
A nurse works at her station with one of the resident cockatiels perched nearby, occasionally taking it out for a chat while it sits on her finger.
But there's a lot more to the Eden Alternative than placing a few animals and plants in a nursing home, says Judy Thomas, wife of Dr. William H. Thomas, who founded the program.
``People who think they're Edenized if they just have a dog. . . . They're totally missing the point,'' she says.
Reducing the use of tranquilizers and other drugs among nursing home residents is ``absolutely key'' to the success of the program, she says.
``Plants, animals and children are really the icing on the cake,'' Thomas explains.
Rather than address just the medical treatment of the frail and elderly, the Eden Alternative seeks to alleviate the boredom, loneliness and helplessness that plague residents in long-term care institutions.
``Even though these cause the bulk of the suffering in the nursing home,'' William Thomas writes in ``The Eden Alternative: Nature, Hope and Nursing Homes,'' ``their roots cannot be traced neatly back to an imbalance of the metabolism or psyche. These three problems receive such little attention because they do not fit well with the medical model of care.''
Launched in New York in 1991 with funds from a state grant, the program has been proven to reduce both the dependence on drugs and the mortality rate among nursing home residents, Thomas says.
National publicity has stirred the interest of many nursing home professionals, resulting in increasing requests for seminars on the program, she says. No longer nonprofit, the Eden Alternative is now seeking to expand ``train the trainer'' programs and community involvement in nursing homes.
In addition to de-emphasizing drugs, Thomas says, the Eden Alternative believes that decisions about residents' lives must be made by those closest to the residents, rather than maintaining the traditional top-down chain of authority.
But the program's director must provide strong, supportive leadership that places quality of life for residents above inevitable objections to the new program.
``Change is hard,'' Thomas acknowledges. ``You always run up against people who have been there 20 years and say it can't be done.''
At Britthaven, employees concede, the reaction was mixed, despite discussions and preparations before the program began in May.
Some staffers believed bringing in pets would make their jobs harder, says Frank Lister, a certified nurse's aide at the center.
``They were afraid of whose responsibility they would be,'' Lister says. ``It would just be an additional thing to do.''
And, he adds, ``Some were afraid of the animals.''
The staff has tried to work out solutions to problems such as allergies, Blackmon says. One wing where a highly allergic staff member works will stay cat-free for now.
Despite some touchy situations initially, the staff says the program has benefited everyone - especially residents.
``It's more of a homey feel, all the way around,'' says Beth Campbell, a licensed practical nurse. ``It's definitely made them more perked-up, more aware. And I think it makes it easier to visit them - it gives them something to talk about. There's not so much talk about their ailments. It's not always easy to visit somebody in a nursing home.''
Residents help care for the pets: cleaning the bird cages; feeding, watering and misting the birds in their rooms; feeding and grooming the cats. Birds also are brought around to visit residents who don't have their own pet in their room.
One staffer, Billy Riddick, also works part-time as an animal caretaker, helping patients care for the pets and looking after the birds in offices, meeting rooms and aviaries throughout the nursing home.
It took 85-year-old Virginia Midgett, who has lived at Britthaven for two years, a little while to get used to her bird, a yellow cockatiel named Rosie.
In the first few days after Rosie took up residence in her room more than a month ago, Midgett wasn't sure if she liked her.
``I even told the girl she could take her back, because I just didn't feel comfortable,'' she recalls.
But when a staff member encouraged Midgett, who is blind, to handle the bird, Rosie eventually won her heart.
``I reckon it was when she put her in my hand and she started eating out of my hand. She was just a' whistling,'' Midgett recounts, as Rosie sits on her arm and pecks gentle kisses on the woman's smiling face.
Another cockatiel endeared itself to its chosen roommate after the bird took to climbing her outstretched leg to rest on her shoulder.
And then there's a cat named Sweetie, who Nancy Bateman insists was attracted to her ``like a magnet.'' Nursing Director Deborah Newcomb recently donated the 7-year-old feline, but Bateman teases that now Sweetie favors her.
``It gives me something to look forward to,'' says Bateman, who speaks with an endearing English accent. ``She's a lovely cat - she knows my walking stick. There's a very human side to her.''
Thomas says the Eden Alternative presents the first significant change in nursing home philosophy since the rampant mental and physical abuses in the system were addressed years ago.
Instead of fixing just medical problems, she says, the program allows nursing home residents to experience the vibrancy of life and membership in the surrounding community.
``Most people who see it working - they'll never go back,'' Thomas says.
With a large aging population, nursing homes are going to become more of a necessity to society, she adds.
``It's something that everyone has to think about,'' Thomas says. ``Everyone is going to be involved one way or another.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
SHARED CARE
Brithaven nursing center resident Alma Cudworth, 90, pf Wanchese
whistles a tune to get a reaction out of her pet bird.
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Mildred Workman, 87, cuddles with a rabbit at Brithaven of the Outer
Banks, a nursing home facility in Nags Head.
Mildred Workman
keeps a
protective
hand on
her pet rabbit
while
holding it
in her lap.
Staff photo by
DREW C. WILSON
Staff photo by DREW C. WILSON
Vera Dale rolls her birds in their cage through the hall of the
nursing facility.
Photo by CATHERINE KOZAK
Ruby Best, 88, spends time caring for Peaches, a poodle owned by
Britthaven administrator Richard Blackmon.
KEYWORDS: NURSING HOME PETS by CNB