Tag: sheard

Emotional Intelligence – The ‘X-Factor’ of Modern Dementia Care

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What is emotional intelligence?

DEFINITION:

the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.

In Basic Terms – emotional intelligence is ‘being smarter with feelings’.

I believe this is the special ability of champions of dementia care to be able to determine other people’s feelings (and their own), and use that information to guide that person’s thinking and behaviour, and to manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt environments to reach a positive outcome for the person.

“People with dementia can no longer rely on facts, logic, reason or memory. It is your feelings and emotional truth that you trust. Emotional intelligence is seen as the primary competency in providing emotional care. Feeling you matter is at the core of being a person. Knowing you matter is at the heart of being alive.” (D.Sheard 2015)

I learnt about this concept from Dr David Sheard from Dementia Care Matters in the UK. A year or so ago he wrote the following inspirational passage for me, and at the time I was not 100% sure what he really meant. I now understand what he was trying to tell me and realize the value in his words of wisdom which have now become my mantra:

“Advancing great quality dementia care requires major culture change. A culture change movement needs people who totally grasp the scale of the challenge ahead. Individuals committed to this need to come from a place of heartfelt passion, emotional intelligence and with a dogged determination. Promoting a new culture of dementia care is not for the faint hearted and requires the rare ability to reach a wide healthcare audience inspiring them to believe it could be different.”

Dementia Care Matters – ‘A Lesson on Being Human’

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Yesterday I was fortunate to be asked to a lunch meeting with one of the leading international dementia care trailblazers in the world, David Sheard.

David is the Founder of the UK based ‘Dementia Care Matters’ which is a company that is offering a different way to caring for people with dementia in nursing homes.

Amazingly, he is considered controversial and ‘out there’ by many in the aged care industry, but when you sit with the man and just listen to him talk he is simply passionate about people and how they are treated. This really resonated with me and together we talked dementia for two hours without hardly taking a breath. (We almost forgot to eat our delicious meal at ‘Sean’s Kitchen’ Adelaide Casino).

Our meeting was simply a lesson in life and stripping things back to the core values of all that is good about being a person. I hung off every word that was said hoping to absorb more knowledge and learn from one of the best in the world. We talked about environment, feelings, living in the moment and so much more. I feel really privileged to be given an insight into an alternative way of doing dementia care…..but should it be the new mainstream, and is it the new ‘black’?

Key aspects of the care model include:

• Developing small household living for people with dementia in a family-like environment

• Removing institutional features such as staff wearing uniforms, medicine trolleys, and rigid ‘task-based’ routines

• Enabling greater freedom for people living in the home to do more for themselves and feel less restricted.

It has been running for over 20 years and it all made sense to me and with over 100 care homes adopting his ‘Butterfly House’ model of care (including 3 sites in Australia) it is obviously working and really needs to be given strong consideration. I worry that mainstream aged care is doing things the same way they always have, and possibly using methods that were developed many decades ago.

Love him or loathe him, David Sheard is a passionate ‘down to earth’ guy that actually CARES…..isn’t that what we all want in a nursing home?…genuine care?….certainly worth consideration.

It was also an absolute pleasure to meet Peter Priednieks (Director of Learning) and spend time with Andrew Ramsey (CEO Hands On SA). A great time was had by all.