The AGE-u-cated® Care Team, Family Member and Organization

No misspelling here.   Who needs  AGE-u-cation?  Our care teams, family members, elder care providers, hospitals,  business community, churches, non-profits need to be MUCH better AGE-u-cated®!

It’s no secret that the world’s elderly population is soaring, with the number of people aged 65 and over expected to more than double by 2050.
The global population is aging at an unprecedented rate with 8.5 per cent of people worldwide – or more than 600 million – now aged 65 and over,  a report from the US Census Bureau showed.
If the trend continues, then nearly 17 per cent of the global population – 1.6 billion people – will be in the 65-and-over age bracket by 2050.
Many experts agree that we are facing a public health crisis, and we’re just starting the steep climb in numbers.  Frightening?  You bet!  Are we moving fast enough?  Not even near…

I was inspired by our group of new Master Trainers last week who are passionate about training and education for those caring for this vulnerable population.  Bringing new, innovative tools to the hands of direct care staff who are in desperate need, we are aiming to do our part in creating change in attitudes, actions and thinking for a world who needs to better communicate and care for our elderly population.

We applaud those on our team deeply committed to advocacy at the state and national levels,  fighting for pay and benefit increases for those we are entrusting to care for our loved ones, patients and resident; for helping to change policies for the betterment of a healthcare system that is inefficient and wrought with inefficiencies.

AGE-u-cation?  Each and every one of us needs it.  We must train up our young people to understand that caring for elders will and should be a part of their life;  that careers in this field are desperately needed and highly rewarding.

I’ve quoted the wise words of Nelson Mandela before – “It always seems impossible until IT’S DONE”.

We on the AGE-u-cate Tea, want to be a part of GETTING IT DONE!
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3513167/Global-elderly-population-exploding-US-report.html#ixzz4ZEPcuuVs

You Know What They Say About the Weather…Wait Five Minutes

Dramatic Image of Scruffy Man Freezing in Cold Weather

At least that’s what they say here in Texas, when it’s 80 degrees one day, and hitting the freezing mark the same night.  We’ve barely had a winter to speak of this year, so my recent trip to experience the Boston blizzard was an adventure and a treat.  So what does the weather have to do with aging and dementia you ask?

Yikes –  I think it’s a great analogy!  Have you walked the floors of a Memory Care Community lately?  The sun is shining and people are happy.  But wait 5 minutes… maybe 5 seconds… and the weather  can all change.  The blizzard can move in quickly and chaos panic and disorder can soon be the order of the day.   Time for deep breathing and some quick meditation.    Person centered care… what’s that?!

I love the term  PERSON-CENTERED THINKING. That takes person-centered care to a whole new level.  To me, person-centered thinking implies that our first response, our actions, our thought process is focused on another’s well being.  When we have tools in our belt that allow us to respond to behavioral expression that look like rain, snow, blizzard or tornado – we’re ready.

Are we equipping our care partners in senior care with the right tools to weather the storms?  

I’m going to venture to guess that most of “us”, because we’re all in this together, could do a better job.  After all, there is always room to grow, right?  Innovation, creativity and the will to want to be better at what we do is a part of life.  We all want to be better equipped to weather the storms.

That blizzard that hit Boston a week ago was followed by a bright beautiful sunny day.  Everyone got back to work and life.   I was able to do what I had travelled there to do (training), flew home the next day….

…and the storm hit again!

For information on the University of Minnesota’s Person-Centered Thinking program:

http://rtc3.umn.edu/pctp/training/intro.asp

 

 

 

For Better or Worse…Love that Endures the Test of Time

Corinthians 13:7 Love PoemLove is in the air during this week of celebrating Valentines Day. My parents were married on Valentines Day, 1941, so this day always makes me reflect on their 56 years together. Both raised during the tumultuous depression years, they built a successful life together from humble beginnings. True partners in business and life, they raised 5 daughters, and enjoyed many triumphs and together faced many challenges along their journey. Their love certainly endured the test of time.

Tom Brokaw’s book, “The Greatest Generation” talks about this World War II generation’s perseverance through difficult times as a testament to their extraordinary character. These men and women developed values that were rooted in personal responsibility, duty, honor and faith. I reflect on the stories that my parents’ shared of their childhood years, young married life and it certainly was no question where they strength and fortitude to face life challenges were formed.

Nothing however, prepared either of them or our family for their aging years when dementia entered my dad’s world and later Parkinson’s disease for my mother. We witnessed our tall, strong father slowly be swept into another world, while my mother struggled to live with the roller coaster of emotions of each new day.

What seemed to hurt the most was their growing loss of independence. The role reversal that takes place between parents and adult children is not natural or easy in any way. In my parents’ case, it was small signs that alerted us to their need for help. Our constant struggle was when to step in and how to do it with grace. Sometimes it went fairly well, and other times it left all of us hurting – to the core.

My work today is centered on the life changing journey of caring for my parents. Through Dad’s dementia journey and then later walking beside my sweet mom as she gracefully fought the battle of her life with Parkinson’s Disease, I could not be more thankful for experiencing it all with them, and honored in what I was able to do for them.

Their love brought them through the most joyous and darkest of days. And although their aging years were not easy, I was immensely blessed to have been a part of all of it, for the difficult times made me a stronger person and made me realize that..

Deep, strong and faithful love ALWAYS endures the test of time.

Person Centered Care: The Art of Authentic Listening

Authentic listening leads to empathetic, person centered careWith today’s emphasis on person centered care, communication skills are essential. Any senior care or hospice professional regularly interacts with people with communication challenges stemming from brain injury, stroke, hearing loss; Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease.

If we were to take an honest look at how we normally listen we would see something like this:  We appear attentive and listening to the words the other person is saying.  We may be distracted by our thoughts about what we are hearing while already forming our response.  Or we may be having little (or big) judgments about what is said.  Most of the time we are more involved with our own experience than that of the other person.

Develop the Qualities of Authentic Listening

Listening from the heart requires self awareness and a willingness to expand your comfort zone.   Intend to listen more authentically. Here are some tips for how to become an authentic listener.

  1. First of all, quiet your mind. Our minds are in constant motion due to distractions that compete for our attention. Quiet the mental chatter and open a space for deep attentiveness.
  2. Listen without judgment. Judgment is reacting based on our own past experience. We react because our personal triggers get pushed resulting in judgment. Awareness of your triggers opens communication. Simply receive without judgement.
  3. Commit to patience. We live in a rushed world. We tend to move on to the next thing rather than attend to what is in front of us. True communication can’t be rushed. Be patient.
  4. Remain in the moment. Let each moment of the interaction unfold without trying to steer it a certain way or without preconceived ideas about where the conversation is going.
  5. Listen first, and then respond. Our tendency is to mentally form our response while the person is still talking. Focus first on what the person is conveying.
  6. Be honest. If you are unable to fully attend it’s better to say so than pretend you’re listening. When preoccupied, tell the person you care but you can’t give your full attention right now. This is acting with integrity.
  7. Listen with your eyes, rather than just  your ears. Observe the non-verbal message. What is body posture telling you? Is voice tone consistent with spoken words? What’s the facial expression saying?
  8. Be comfortable with silence because it leads  to powerful communication. Silence allows the heart to connect and builds trust and empathy.
  9. Lastly, receive the gifts of authentic listening. When you listen from the heart you enter into a mutual experience of giving and receiving. Let the experience uplift you.

Authentic listening is not about doing anything. Therefore no formulated response. No need to fix anything or to make the person feel better. But rather it’s about being with the other person while caring about his or her experience. In conclusion,  Rachel Naomi Remen tells us, “Listening is the oldest and perhaps the most powerful tool of healing. It is often through the quality of our listening rather than the wisdom of our words that we are able to effect the most profound changes on the people around us.”

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