PHI’s New York Training Manager MariaElena Del Valle kicked off the Lillian and James Portman Conference this week with an opening session called “Celebrate Your Being, the Fullness of Your Heart.” The interactive session included music and storytelling and offered participants a chance to reflect, renew, and energize.

The annual conference is designed to help direct-care workers adopt effective dementia care practices and this year’s gathering in Livonia, Michigan focused on strengthening communication and relationships.

MariaElena Del Valle

Del Valle led an audience of 400 in an inspirational discussion themed “Your Life as Story,” where she gave participants a chance to reflect on why they became a direct-care worker. When several answered that it was a spiritual desire to give, she commended them and then told them to think of themselves as worthy of making a living.

“Be the protagonist of your own life and your job as a direct-care worker and own your personal power,” she reflected a few days after the conference. “If you don’t view your life as story, then you can’t build a case for saying ‘we deserve a double digit salary.’”

Del Valle wants direct-care workers to look out for their own pocketbook and their future.

“We all know stories of health care workers who have become homeless,” she said. “They have health issues and no benefits and there’s no one to take care of them because they don’t qualify for anything. How can we say we took care of so many people and there’s no one to take care of us at the end?”

PHI’s Midwest Training and Organization Development Specialist Maureen Sheahan ran a workshop later in the day called “Speaking Up for Yourself and Individuals in Your Care.”

Maureen Sheahan

Sheahan was assisted by Training Associate Darlene Kauffman, the mother of a severely disabled young woman, who became involved with PHI training after attending a consumers and employers train-the-trainer workshop.

Nearly 70 direct-care workers participated in Monday’s workshop, which offered tools to recognize and manage strong emotions, to find greater perspective, and speak in constructive and effective ways when dealing with coworkers, managers, families, and clients.

“People often don’t know how to speak up about things that they think are wrong in a respectful way,” says Sheahan. “By the time we speak up, we’ve often made the other person, the problem, the villain. Even when tackling tough issues, speaking in a respectful way that clearly and directly identifies the problem without blame and judgment and invites the other person to problem solve with us, is the most effective approach.

The same principles spill over into caring for clients with dementia because where you sit emotionally in relationship to them, dramatically affects the dynamics and it’s got to be respectful and focused on positive outcomes.”