Honoring Personhood

Wonderful speaker, engaging activity. Megan speaks straight and to the point. She truly has walked the walk.

This was a great program. The Learning Circle approach got people talking, collaborating and connecting. Excellent interactive day!

M.O.V.E. members were energized at the recent quarterly meeting, Honoring Personhood: The Art of Enhancing Well-being in Elders, led by Megan Hannan of Action Pact, www.culturechangenow.com. The excitement was palpable and continued to grow throughout the day as participants learned from Megan and each other, identifying new ways to honor personhood in their organizations.

Time constraints often hinder our ability to honor personhood. For example, care plans need to be developed within days or hours at a time residents when may be coping with difficult life changing transitions. Information gathered at this time is often inaccurate or incomplete and may not even be used by staff. Megan encouraged the group to think about “befriending” residents, building a relationship based on equality, rather than “bestowing,” where the relationship is mostly one way and residents have little opportunity to reciprocate. Some ways to help develop relationships and improve our knowledge about personhood that emerged from discussion included:

• Recognize it takes time to get to know people and create opportunities to foster relationships. For example, wonderful things can happen when staff share meals with residents, engaging them in normal day-to-day conversations about family, food, pets, work, and other life experiences.
• Engage residents in creating a “welcome wagon” to greet new residents and help them feel welcomed.
• Match a resident and a staff person who has some assigned activities, including working with the resident to develop a portfolio of important aspects of their lives. This could be turned into a story board and posted outside of their door.
• Develop an organizational project to reach a common community goal. An example was one facility that participates in the American Heart Association Walk (Roll & Stroll). Last year they walked around the world twice, this year they are aiming for the moon.

We also explored concepts of organizational climate and recognized that organizational structures need to move from a climate where negative interactions predominate to one based on positive relationships and experiences. We explored the concept of homelessness and how so many residents feel homeless, even with a safe place to sleep and eat. We discussed understanding the concept of “home” for residents and considered ways to help them obtain privacy, connectedness, power and autonomy, and other experiences of home.

This program was sponsored in part by Marquis Company. Mary Amick of The Vital Life Foundation presented the inspiring program, New Chapters, an initiative that has helped hundreds of residents achieve their wishes, including flying a plane, visiting San Francisco, riding in a hot air balloon, and attending Blazer games and meeting players. More information about some of the recipients can be found at www.vitallifefoundation.org.