Person-Centered Care Anthology Features PHI Contributions
Models and Pathways for Person-Centered Elder Care, a newly published anthology on person-centered eldercare, features two chapters written by members of the PHI Coaching & Consulting Services team.
Staff Development for Person-Directed Care
In her contribution to the book, entitled “Staff Development for Person-Directed Care,” PHI Coaching & Consulting Services Director Susan Misiorski emphasizes the need to change the culture of nursing homes to put a greater emphasis on “deep learning.”
In order to create an environment of true person-centeredness, “the nursing home must adopt learning as a primary driving value and become a learning organization,” Misiorski writes.
“For many nursing homes this represents a profound cultural shift, yet it is one that will lay the strongest foundation for the future,” she continues.
Misiorski writes about adult learner-centered training methods as a way to make such a cultural shift a reality. She explains that the learning needs of adult workers differ from those of adolescents — adults must feel respected and supported, and they must be given opportunities to practice their new skills in realistic situations.
Misiorski also presents a brief case study of the PHI Center for Coaching Supervision and Leadership, a multiyear demonstration project in which 11 different sites became immersed in different communication, problem-solving, and team-building skills, all with an adult-learner centered focus.
“The participants invested in becoming learning organizations, and as a result, each succeeded in making significant changes to their cultures,” Misiorski reports.
Sharing Power, Finding Voice
“Sharing Power, Finding Voice,” a chapter written by PHI Organizational Change Consultant Anna Ortigara, examines several methods by which nursing homes can empower their direct-care staff to provide more meaningful person-centered care to elders.
“Organizations need to challenge their beliefs about the abilities, motivations, and commitment of direct-care workers to be able to see them as trusted and capable partners,” Ortigara writes.
Ortigara’s chapter includes brief summaries of models that equip direct-care workers to more deeply engage with the values of person-centered care, including Mather LifeWays’s LEAP, the Wellspring Program, and The Green House® Model.
All of those models are designed to challenge accepted notions of how decision-making power is distributed within traditional nursing homes, Ortigara writes.
“Ultimately, culture change in long-term care will not be achieved or sustained without radical organizational redesign where care partners join elders at the center of organizational power,” she concludes.
More on the Book
Models and Pathways for Person-Centered Elder Care (Health Professions Press) contains 24 chapters altogether, with subjects ranging from the role of social workers in developing culture change to the unique challenges presented by implementing culture change in dementia-specific facilities.
The book was edited by Audrey S. Weiner, president and CEO of Jewish Home Lifecare, and Judah L. Ronch, dean of the University of Maryland‘s Erickson School of Aging Studies.
It is a companion to their 2003 anthology, Culture Change in Elder Care.
