Flatten the Hierarchy and Look Beyond Tasks for Culture Change

Changing habits in long-term care can be a difficult prospect in the face of daily task lists, but a major component of culture change is thinking beyond just the tasks to a place where resident-centredness is the core of care philosophies.

This can’t happen unless leadership is passionately committed to the transformation.

This was an early concept driven home for CapitalCare CEO Iris Neuman following the first presentation at the CapitalCare Foundation’s 25th annual People and Progress Conference in Edmonton.

Dr. Al Power was the first speaker, and is well-versed in the intricacies of this shift in elder care philosophy through his experience at Rochester, New York’s St. John’s Home, where he’s an Eden Alternative mentor.

The home’s mission, “to nurture life with vibrant, caring, life-affirming relationships and to create a resident-centred community,” speaks well to the theme of the conference.

Al related many concepts to the audience of hundreds, but one concept struck Iris because of her role in leadership: meaningful change can only happen when leadership is fully behind it and allows others to believe it as well.

He also spoke about flattening the hierarchy within an organization and leadership that’s able to honour the knowledge and experience of its team on the front lines as it changes approaches to care.

“That notion of vision, education and implementation is critical,” Iris says, shortly after Al’s discussion ends.

“That’s where it starts; the leaders must have the passion . . . and they can take that passion right back to the front-line staff.”

CapitalCare is Canada largest public provider of long-term care and has demonstrated progressive thinking in many ways — notably through its approach to Alzheimer’s care at McConnell Place North, which was designed in a small, household model — but there’s much more to be done.

“We’ve started the journey but there’s a long way to go,” Iris says.

“Where I see us heading on our journey, in terms of the culture-change aspect is, to work with staff. We’ve done some work on environments . . . but even in those homes, and they are much better than a big institution, it’s still easy to slip back to thinking only of tasks.”

As the audience heard during the conference, the sector needs to move away from being task-oriented to following the choices and wishes of elders receiving care.

If you have questions or comments, please contact 800-294-0051, ext. 24, or e-mail kristian(at)axiomnews.ca.