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The care for older people can be grim. Old People’s Homes can appear to be a dumping ground, a prison, a waiting room for dying.
Over the last 12 months, in partnership with Independent Perspective, we have
begun to take a transformational programme into old people's homes. We
began with a house that had been seen as a problem home having had five managers in five years, endless personality clashes and cultural conflicts, and problems of the past
that went on simmering. It was not a happy place.
Using our model of transformation, developed over 16 years, they saw the Home transform beyond anyone’s dreams. Absenteeism went way down below the average, the atmosphere changed from one of individualism to one of community and mutuality; longstanding feuds ended then and there, gossip was banned and if it raised its head was banned once more by the carers. People began to take delight in caring for each other.
Of course life continued at times to be hard; the bureaucracy continued to send endless forms of compliance, administration threatened to stifle the
vibrant atmosphere but the team was now in charge. ‘It was as if we had emptied a hopelessly untidy cupboard, thrown out the old rubbish, cleared and sorted and organised so that there was once again space; and that cupboard still remains clear and with space.’ The cupboard is metaphorical; the manager here is speaking of the space that opens up within us and between us giving us room to choose and take control of how we create our lives and how we relate one to another.
The profound work of transformation is now being made visible not only in the way people relate to each other but also in
significant beneficial changes to the physical environment initiated by the care
team. At a commercial level the house has become more successful, the reputation of the Home has
been raised, and recently it was featured on TV as a place where residents are
happy.
Please contact us
if you are interested in workshops like this.
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