A research study (Reichman; Leonard; Mintz; Kaizer; Lisner-Kerbel, 2004) highlights that a key factor in families’ perception of the quality of care in aged care facilities is the process of sharing residents’ life history details with health care workers. Families also reported feeling that high quality care should not solely be task related but also needs to contribute to and maintain the dignity and worth of the institutionalised individual.
Families believe that the best way to avoid the potential conflicts between task related duties of staff in aged care facilities and respecting the person is to develop a relationship with staff members through the sharing of information about the resident as an individual.
The idea of the importance of maintaining one’s identity throughout ageing is hardly new but rather serves as a reminder of the significance that ‘personhood’ (Sabat, 1998) involves the individual’s need to be responded to as a person who is bound up in a self-awareness of body image and function which in turn affects a person’s self-esteem. This reinforces the concept that self-identity is validated through interaction and co-operation with others.
Moving into residential care necessarily creates a lack of continuity with an individual’s previous lifestyle. Consequently, individuals can feel a great sense of loss and experience disconnection and vulnerability. Although a lot of life history is collected by health workers it is typically limited and impersonal.
There is, however, rarely an attempt to compile the collected information to form a holistic picture of each resident’s life experiences, values and identity beyond a primary emphasis on physical needs. The development of a new resource titled Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow a Personal Journal, has been developed as a resource to bridge this gap. This book aims to enhance the quality of life of an older person particularly those who are living in residential settings.
The purpose of this book is to capture the unique details of an adult or older person who resides in a residential care facility. The more nursing staff, activity workers, carers, other allied health professionals and family members know about the resident, their past relationships, occupations, interests, passions, likes and dislikes, wishes and hopes, the better placed they will be to provide care for the special individual.
Recalling the past can have positive self-health and wellbeing benefits for older people. Further, the process of sharing and collecting life history information is an important step in promoting and enhancing the relationship between nursing staff and residents, and nursing staff and the residents' families.
This new resource aims to initiate the collection of details that showcases a life about a particular older person. It provides a means to initiate meaningful exchanges where details about an older person’s life experiences, skills and knowledge can be collected and recorded. It is the intention that a person-centred approach is used to compile a unique record of a person’s past, present and future life. As such, their ‘yesterday, today and tomorrow’, can be shared with their children, grandchildren, friends, aged care residents, nurses, activity workers and health workers in the course of daily living in residential care.
It has been designed so that it is possible for the person and others to be involved in a process of exchanges to gather and share personal details from the past that allow for times to reflect and remember significant achievements, people and relationships, events and items of interest. Some residents including those experiencing a dementia may be reliant to a large extent on the support of others to contribute to the compilation of their records.
The book provides a framework in the form of suggestions or prompts for details that can be included to showcase a unique individual’s life. Putting the records together using words, photographs, notes, stories, recollections of past events, newspaper clippings, images, hobbies and various items of interest or chosen mementos should be an enjoyable ongoing activity that the owner of this journal can be proud of.
Whatever the case, any inclusions into this personal journal should highlight and acknowledge the richness of the experiences the person has lived through and those she or he continues to experience. The words, photographs and personal souvenirs included in the compilation should further reflect the uniqueness of the individual it portrays.
This Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow personal journal has the potential to give much enjoyment to individuals who become involved in the process of recording a person’s life story as well as those who will share the record. The life experiences and details recorded can provide a rich resource for sharing with family members, friends, carers, aged care fellow residents, allied health professionals as well as others with whom the individual comes into contact in her or his daily life.
Communication is so much more than simply the exchange of words. We need to look, listen and be attuned not only to the words but to the physical messages being communicated by the person in order to meet an individual’s social and emotional well-being.
Everyone has a story to tell and words are only part of the picture. So let the record begin!
References
Reichman, S; Leonard, C; Mintz, T; Kaizer, C; & Lisner-Kerbel, H.(2004). ‘Compling Life History Resources for Older Adults in Institutions’ Journal of Gerontological Nursing: Feb 2004; 30(2), 20-28
Sabat, S.R. Voices of Alzheimer’s disease sufferers; A call for treatment based personhood. The Journal for Clinical Ethics. 9 (1), 35,48.
For more details about the ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ journal contact:
Ann Rudowski, Manager
ActionWorks - Healthcare
03 9578 9360
inquiry@actionworks.com.au
www.actionworks.com.au
ActionWorks
HEALTHCARE & WORKPLACE TRAINING
‘actions speak louder than words’
ActionWorks Healthcare Services has just launched ‘Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow: A Personal Journal’ developed to showcase the unique life of an older person living in a residential setting. It provides the opportunity for a resident’s children, grandchildren, friends, carers, nurses and healthcare workers to spend meaningful time with the resident to listen and to acknowledge the experiences that lie within that person and to share the richness of a life well lived. This journal companion also has particular value for residents who have a dementia or are no longer able to verbally communicate since it offers a means to understanding the particular individual and meeting their current care needs.
Contact ActionWorks on 9578 9360 or see
www.actionworks.com.au for more details.
The idea of the importance of maintaining one’s identity throughout ageing is hardly new but rather serves as a reminder of the significance that ‘personhood’ (Sabat, 1998) involves the individual’s need to be responded to as a person who is bound up in a self-awareness of body image and function which in turn affects a person’s self-esteem. This reinforces the concept that self-identity is validated through interaction and co-operation with others.
Moving into residential care necessarily creates a lack of continuity with an individual’s previous lifestyle. Consequently, individuals can feel a great sense of loss and experience disconnection and vulnerability. Although a lot of life history is collected by health workers it is typically limited and impersonal.
There is, however, rarely an attempt to compile the collected information to form a holistic picture of each resident’s life experiences, values and identity beyond a primary emphasis on physical needs. The development of a new resource titled Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow a Personal Journal, has been developed as a resource to bridge this gap. This book aims to enhance the quality of life of an older person particularly those who are living in residential settings.
The purpose of this book is to capture the unique details of an adult or older person who resides in a residential care facility. The more nursing staff, activity workers, carers, other allied health professionals and family members know about the resident, their past relationships, occupations, interests, passions, likes and dislikes, wishes and hopes, the better placed they will be to provide care for the special individual.
Recalling the past can have positive self-health and wellbeing benefits for older people. Further, the process of sharing and collecting life history information is an important step in promoting and enhancing the relationship between nursing staff and residents, and nursing staff and the residents' families.
This new resource aims to initiate the collection of details that showcases a life about a particular older person. It provides a means to initiate meaningful exchanges where details about an older person’s life experiences, skills and knowledge can be collected and recorded. It is the intention that a person-centred approach is used to compile a unique record of a person’s past, present and future life. As such, their ‘yesterday, today and tomorrow’, can be shared with their children, grandchildren, friends, aged care residents, nurses, activity workers and health workers in the course of daily living in residential care.
It has been designed so that it is possible for the person and others to be involved in a process of exchanges to gather and share personal details from the past that allow for times to reflect and remember significant achievements, people and relationships, events and items of interest. Some residents including those experiencing a dementia may be reliant to a large extent on the support of others to contribute to the compilation of their records.
The book provides a framework in the form of suggestions or prompts for details that can be included to showcase a unique individual’s life. Putting the records together using words, photographs, notes, stories, recollections of past events, newspaper clippings, images, hobbies and various items of interest or chosen mementos should be an enjoyable ongoing activity that the owner of this journal can be proud of.
Whatever the case, any inclusions into this personal journal should highlight and acknowledge the richness of the experiences the person has lived through and those she or he continues to experience. The words, photographs and personal souvenirs included in the compilation should further reflect the uniqueness of the individual it portrays.
This Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow personal journal has the potential to give much enjoyment to individuals who become involved in the process of recording a person’s life story as well as those who will share the record. The life experiences and details recorded can provide a rich resource for sharing with family members, friends, carers, aged care fellow residents, allied health professionals as well as others with whom the individual comes into contact in her or his daily life.
Communication is so much more than simply the exchange of words. We need to look, listen and be attuned not only to the words but to the physical messages being communicated by the person in order to meet an individual’s social and emotional well-being.
Everyone has a story to tell and words are only part of the picture. So let the record begin!
References
Reichman, S; Leonard, C; Mintz, T; Kaizer, C; & Lisner-Kerbel, H.(2004). ‘Compling Life History Resources for Older Adults in Institutions’ Journal of Gerontological Nursing: Feb 2004; 30(2), 20-28
Sabat, S.R. Voices of Alzheimer’s disease sufferers; A call for treatment based personhood. The Journal for Clinical Ethics. 9 (1), 35,48.
For more details about the ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’ journal contact:
Ann Rudowski, Manager
ActionWorks - Healthcare
03 9578 9360
inquiry@actionworks.com.au
www.actionworks.com.au
ActionWorks
HEALTHCARE & WORKPLACE TRAINING
‘actions speak louder than words’
ActionWorks Healthcare Services has just launched ‘Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow: A Personal Journal’ developed to showcase the unique life of an older person living in a residential setting. It provides the opportunity for a resident’s children, grandchildren, friends, carers, nurses and healthcare workers to spend meaningful time with the resident to listen and to acknowledge the experiences that lie within that person and to share the richness of a life well lived. This journal companion also has particular value for residents who have a dementia or are no longer able to verbally communicate since it offers a means to understanding the particular individual and meeting their current care needs.
Contact ActionWorks on 9578 9360 or see
www.actionworks.com.au for more details.