Day 20: Who’s the Boss? Providing Person-centered Care and Caring

November 20, 2011

By Bonnie Kantor-Burman, Director, Ohio Department of Aging

My mother was cared for by a wonderful woman, Darlene, during the time she needed long-term care and caring. One day, I asked Darlene if my mother could go somewhere with me—I don’t remember where, but it really doesn’t matter. What matters is the quizzical and rather piercing look I received from Darlene. Thinking that maybe she didn’t hear me clearly, I repeated my query. This time she responded not only with words, but with her arms flailing wildly for emphasis. “Why you are asking me?” she replied. “Your mother is the boss, not me.” And then, with a finger pointing my way she continued, “For heaven’s sake, ask her, not me.” Point well-taken indeed, and clearly never forgotten.

More and more states continue to “rebalance” their provision of long term care, focusing their efforts squarely on moving some of the care from more nursing homes to home- and community-based settings. This, of course, is not only more cost effective, but is what most folks tell us they want. Here in Ohio, our approach to rebalancing is multidimensional. In additional to shifting the balance back to providing more care in the home, we are also focusing on the message Darlene sent to me loud and clear. We are concentrating not only on where the care is delivered but also how, by whom and when. Think about it: If we are getting up on someone else’s schedule, going to bed when they decide and eating the food they think best for us at the hour they determine, are we really “home?” Or are we living in a house that used to be our home? In other words, who is in charge—or to paraphrase Darlene, “Who’s the boss?” After all, aren’t we the boss in our own homes? Don’t we make our own decisions whenever possible? And don’t we have real relationships with the people there?

Care in which the person needing the support is living as normal a life as possible and making as many of her own decisions as possible (regardless of whether the care is provided by family and friends or formal care from paid caregivers) is best described as person-centered care. It is the kind of care each of us would want for ourselves and for our loved ones. While there are many different approaches to person-centered care, the core values that unite them are choice, dignity, respect and self-determination. Person-centered care always is characterized by individual choice in schedule and relationship. To achieve this, formal and informal providers adjust their care and routines to the needs of the care recipient instead of the other way around. So, instead of being reassured that, “Mom is adjusting well,” in a person-centered care situation, a daughter will hear, “We are adjusting well to your mom.”

Perhaps a former care recipient said it best when she commented, “You haven’t lived ’til you’ve gone to the bathroom on someone else’s schedule.”

I would be remiss if I didn’t add that research suggests that everyone benefits from person-centered care. Health and functional outcomes are better, costs are lower and both providers and consumers are more satisfied. Sounds like a win-win-win situation to me!

Person-centered care certainly worked for our family. My mother, “the boss,” lived for a full six years being cared for and cared about by Darlene. She lived a full six years being loved by Darlene. In her own way, she loved Darlene right back. Isn’t this the kind of care and caring we want for all of our elders? Who’s the boss in your caregiving situation?

Resources

1) Ohio Department of Aging Web site: www.aging.ohio.gov

2) Ohio Department of Aging on Facebook

3) Ohio Department of Aging on Twitter

Please Give Credit

Day 20: Who’s the Boss? Providing Person-centered Care and Caring by By Bonnie Kantor-Burman, Director, Ohio Department of Aging is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.