Empathy Experience
What Living as a Resident Can Teach Long-Term Care Staff
Education Workshops
What happens when real caregivers become “real” residents? How will their experiences change how they think about being a resident? How will the care they provide to residents change in the future?
‘Through the Looking Glass’ was a program developed by Leslie to teach empathy to our caregivers. Staff members moved into the nursing home, lived the role of a real diagnosis and accepted daily ‘challenges’ our residents experience every day.
From learning the importance of communication to creating meaningful engagement, the resulting insights of these caregivers sensitized other staff members – new and veteran – to practical and effective ways that they were able to immediately improve daily care for residents.
This program became the culture of the long-term care community and grew into an Elder Shadowing requirement for all newly hired staff to live with a resident for 24 hours before they are able to begin their new job.
Dementia Related Education
Understanding Behavior and Learning to Be with People Living with Dementia – Partnering with Family Member in the Care of Their Loved Ones with Dementia
In order to understand how to be with and have meaningful interactions with a person living with dementia we have to understand their behavior. Long-term care staff members will learn techniques to enable family members to interact with their loved ones with dementia. As the disease progression occurs, family members have difficulty dealing with and are upset by the changes in behavior of their loved ones. Staff must learn the role of care-partner, teacher and support system. Learn how to better support families when their loved ones react in a way they don’t recognize or understand. Staff play critical role with the family as co-caregivers by teaching these techniques to change the families approach.
Understanding behavior is the most popular dementia related topic. Other dementia related topics available are dining, intimacy, Life Story, bathing and activities.
DQ Foundations
Have you ever heard the saying, ‘we get what we give’? Every one of us contributes to the quality of life and experience of the residents and families we serve. Our jobs are hard and sometimes we fail to see that we really do make a difference. DQ Foundations provides the opportunity for care partners to change the way they see themselves and their co-workers. This session will give them the vision to see the unique qualities and contributions we each have to build quality relationships among our team. During this inspiring and productive session, care partners will build their “I Matter” statements and learn how to build resilience in order to bring dignity to life in everything they do. Connections built among your team will leave them inspired to be the best version of themselves.
DQ Challenges for Managers
Who was your greatest coach or leader? What qualities did they possess that lead you to be your best self in their presence? The DQ Leadership Challenge workshop will provide managers the opportunity to explore what gets in their way of being their best in challenging situations. Mangers will learn a 5-step process for handling challenging situations and ways to build resilience in order to be present every single day. These Leaders will leave with greater confidence and clarity about how to bring DQ to life in a variety of complicated circumstances.
DQ Challenges for Staff
Great customer service is something we want all of our staff to achieve. Every one of us has had an amazing customer service experience and others that have made us never do business at a particular establishment again. What is good customer service and how do we reach the point that it becomes part of our culture? DQ Challenges for Staff provides staff with an understanding and practice in weaving dignity into the way we serve residents and resident’s families. This workshop will identify what gets in the way of providing great customer service. With new tools and approaches in hand, participants gain confidence as they learn to navigate complex and often challenging situations with dignity.
Lead with DQ
Many of us find ourselves in leadership positions without the proper tools to sow the seeds of change. Lead with DQ moves us from a reactive state to a positive state of being. We will learn how to bring our strengths and qualities to weave dignity and compassion into everything we do. In this workshop, we will role-play giving feedback in challenging situations and deconstruct the impact of reactive feedback. Leaders will build confidence in their conflict management skills and increase their resilience as they improve their performance. The DQ switch on feedback will help a person see and understand their positive impact on others.
