“The absence of misery does not result in positive well-being. Positive well-being from connectedness makes elderly people better resistant against the effects of aging.”
Evean, one of the Netherlands leading care organisations, is introducing a revolutionary shift in how it looks after people, and has asked Do Something Different to help bring about the vital culture change that will be needed to make it happen.
Working with our Dutch partner Medicinfo, Evean Manager Judith Woudt and Consultant Mike Dorst came and visited us in Brighton to discuss a culture change programme that will help staff members make the transition from a focus on care to a focus on well-being.
Mike Dorst explains:
“Evean has an excellent reputation in the Netherlands for first class care, but we want to do more. Our extensive research with clients, their families, staff and medical research all supports the idea of moving from a model of paternalistic care to a well-being model with the client playing a more participatory role.”
Research suggests that a participatory client who thinks about their own care and plays an active role in decision-making is more likely to be cognitively engaged, in some cases, be more mobile or remain mobile, and feel more comfortable with their self.
The environment has to change
A care home that focuses on well-being has to move away from institutionalised food to one where eating is once more a highlight of each day. It will offer motivating activities that encourage mobility and connectedness that helps clients to resist the aging process and gives strength and cognitive vitality. Efficient spaces need to change to create a living environment that promotes the preservation of identity, mobility and independence.
Most importantly, the carers’ behaviour has to change
The biggest challenge is changing the behaviour of staff, creating a different way of working. It will no longer be the care professional who prescribes mandatory treatments from an expert perspective. Instead, the client should be in charge, or at least be given the opportunity, to decide what care is needed and when.
In the new well-being focused care home:
- The care provider suggests treatment, explains the choice and its consequences, and the client decides.
- The professional has a more coaching role, gives more space to clients so they can and will take decisions themselves, and develop activities themselves, can and will be thinking about the details of their care and /or treatment.
- As care professional they are the partner and advisor of the customer, from the expertise as a (care) professional. This is where the learning coalition develops. Here is interaction between desire and deliverance of the provided care, based on the needs of the client.
Changing culture with Do Something Different
Our new programme will encourage staff to make the cultural leap and embrace this new way of working. To design the programme, our founding psychologist, Professor Karen Pine, has visited Evean’s pilot care homes in Zaandijk in the Netherlands to work with their specialists to create a custom programme. The programme will be translated into Dutch and is planned to be live by June 2015.
