Premium
Building relationships to enhance person‐centered care through emotion‐focused care
Author(s) -
Abbott Katherine M,
Heid Allison R,
Spector Abby,
Heppner Alex,
VanHaitsma Kimberly S
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1002/alz.051861
Subject(s) - feeling , psychology , disappointment , anger , shame , resentment , social psychology , politics , political science , law
Background The way we respond emotionally to others can impact how we provide care. Research has shown that employees with high emotional intelligence (EI) know what they are feeling, stop to think before they act, and have strategies for appropriately managing negative feelings and promoting positive feelings. These characteristics are vital to care team members whose entire day involves interacting with other people. Working with people is a double‐edged sword: it can be incredibly rewarding, but people also can bring out negative emotions – frustration, disappointment, anger, shame, and resentment. The ability to identify and manage emotions is particularly important for care team members who work with people living with dementia. While people living with moderate to severe dementia have lost much of their cognitive capacity, feelings remain intact far into the disease process. Care team members recognize that their job is not just to take care of residents’ physical needs; rather, it is to take care of the whole person – body, mind, and soul. Improving quality of life means being concerned about the whole person, and emotional well‐being in particular. We have developed an interactive, on‐line, self‐paced course for all people providing care to others with the specific goal of increasing awareness of emotions and helping to identify emotions in others. The training is supported by research indicating that individuals who can better manage their own emotions are better positioned to manage behaviors and emotions in others. The central concept of the training is to build individuals’ capacity for recognizing and managing their emotions and the emotions of others to enhance person‐centered care. While the course is relevant to any person who is a caregiver, it focuses on the context of providing care to an individual with dementia. The training is available to individuals at no cost due to generous grant funding. The goal of this presentation is to introduce the concept of EI, particularly as it applies to caregivers and then review how to access and navigate the course.