Guest Blog: "Putting Person Centered Care in Perspective"
The following is a guest blog by Anthony Cirillo:
Person-centered care. Culture change. A lot of words are being added to the long term care vernacular. In the last few weeks I along with two colleagues brought a new service to the market looking at how to change the experience in long term care. So we have been "shopping" it around so to speak and I have to tell you I am concerned.
What we have heard is that person centered care is top of mind for administrators and some would say the focus of everything they do every day. Yet, true culture change in long term care has not happened. Many administrators we talked to say that is partly because the paper they are buried in (read that rules and regulations) does not allow them to focus on true culture change. That is understandable but the tone in which it has been conveyed to us is very defeatist and negative and that can only spell doom for the industry.
Can you will yourself out of existence? Possibly. But don't discount the need. This country is ranked 37th in the World Health Organization and we are plagued with chronic conditions. Aging in place we would all agree is something we all would desire. But the fact is that long term care facilities are going to be needed more than you think. I look around facilities I frequent and think that age did not catch up to the residents; they did not keep up with themselves. The boomers who may need your services will not accept them as they are. The experience must change.
There is something more fundamental that needs to take place to facilitate culture change - not hammers and nails but a shift in hearts and minds. When the shift occurs, natural positive movement occurs. In looking at the root cause preventing hearts to be fully engaged, we offer this analogy.
What do a long term care facility and a fire house have in common? A lot actually. Dirty jobs, life and death, dark moments and light yet the firefighters culture thrives with little burnout and low attrition. Why is that? Firefighters create a supportive and celebratory culture that acknowledges the heartache (death around the corner) while celebrating joy. Long term care workers are confronted with their mortality every day but have little support to help them relieve fear, grief and sadness.
We believe that long term care workers are heroes and need to be celebrated. And they need to be able to create and thrive in the kind of community enjoyed by firefighters, one that allows the expression of grief and the celebration of joy. That means pausing to do so and that is missing too. People do their job and they go home. Their feelings stay pent up and when they burn out they simply leave.
For more, play my video blog on the topic. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYCPO96oDQU
What do you think?
Anthony Cirillo, FACHE, ABC is a health care consultant, ombudsman and expert blogger for Wellsphere in the area of aging and senior health. He consults with long-term care facilities and is available for management retreats and association keynotes. He is the author of "Who Moved My Dentures? His company, Fast Forward Consulting empowers organizations to change the healthcare experience and leverage it in their marketing. Their "Experience Makeover" is a four-week intensive dive that assesses the employee and resident experience, redesigns it, equips and empowers everyone to change it and makes it an indelible part of the culture. To read more, go to www.4wardfast.com and www.anthonyssong.com.