Caregiving – Thought Leadership

Handling Caregiver Burnout

What is caregiver burnout

The Cleveland Clinic defines caregiver burnout as “a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion.” This could include any number of negative emotions and behaviors. Some examples include fatigue, stress, anxiety, and changes in behavior. These feelings can build upon each other, which may cause negative feelings to worsen. The Cleveland Clinic says that staff members who are “struggling with burnout may make errors in judgement or decision-making ability; these errors could prove dangerous or even fatal” in cases of accidental mistreatment of medications. The feelings also could negatively impact the lives of the caregivers themselves.

Why it happens

Caregiver burnout may happen for many reasons. Caitlin Morgan from the Cleveland Clinic says several factors may influence the development of caregiver burnout. Caregivers handle many responsibilities and may not always have the help they need. Morgan cautions that “Facilities that are understaffed are at higher risk of developing burnout, as are those who face excessively high workloads.”

Prevention and relief

Thankfully, there are many ways to prevent and alleviate burnout. The Cleveland Clinic recommends:

Setting realistic goals
Taking advantage of respite care services
Developing tools for coping
Speaking with someone you trust or a support group

Caregivers who set goals, take breaks, find helpful resources and talk with others can relieve stress, find solutions to problems, and will remember that they are not alone in this process. Finally, caregivers should set aside time for self-care as well!

SOURCES

Cleveland Clinic. “Caregiver Burnout.” January 13, 2019

Caitlin Morgan. “Reducing Caregiver Burnout in Assisted Living Facilities.” Caitlin Morgan. May 15, 2020.

Wisconsin Caregiver Academy takes away the stress of caregiver training with online options. See how we exceed standards of care with ongoing training options.

Writing/Research Credit: Benjamin Kopetsky, UW-Green Bay Marketing Intern

Assisted Living Summer Camp

As things returned to more normal, Evergreen Place Assisted Living in Champaign, Illinois, brought back their summer camp for residents, an annual event, designed for residents and staff to grow closer and be “kids at heart” together.

This year’s theme is “Break Out of the Outbreak,” and every day started with a mock “press release,” previewing the day’s activities, which included watching funny YouTube videos, games, games, arts and crafts, singsong, a staff canoe race, meals over the fire along with a closing campfire and awards.

“Anything you can do with a 5-year-old, you can do with a 95-year-old. With some modifications, of course,” said Evergreen’s life enrichment coordinator and camp director, Emma Jane Glick.

According Psychology Today, there is mounting evidence for the positive effects of laughter. It reduces pain, allowing us to relax with discomfort. It reduces blood sugar levels, offering relief to diabetics and nondiabetics. Most importantly, laughter brings people together, creating a sense of connection and a positive emotional climate.

Glick talked about her goals for the camp. “If we laugh every day this week, if we have fun every day, then that’s just… a great reward and that’s really a great goal of our camp.”

Laughter really is the best medicine.

Committed to Healthy Aging

We are approaching a milestone in the aging population. By 2034 for the first time in U.S. history adults 65+ are projected to outnumber children under 18. This milestone will affect healthcare in a dramatic way, creating a demand for a new approach to healthy aging and specialized knowledge of the complex needs of older adults.

Wisconsin Caregiver Academy has created a noncredit Certificate Program in Geriatric Healthcare in order to meet this demand. The certificate comprises four core courses and two electives, including “Mental Health” and “Generations and Diversity in an Aging Society.”

The certificate is relevant to nurses, social workers or case managers. Learn how you can play a larger role in patient-centered care for older adults.

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SOURCE
WCIA/WCIX. “Residents ‘Break Out of the Outbreak’ at Evergreen Place Assisted Living.” July 14, 2021
Psychology Today. “Laughter: The Best Medicine. Hara Estroff Marano, Last Reviewed June 9, 2016

Growing Optimism Around Vaccine

If you’ve been wondering about the impact of the coronavirus vaccine and the incidence of cases at nursing homes, you’ll be glad to know the latest news is positive.

According to a recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the first nursing home inoculations in Wisconsin took place December 28, and in that week, Wisconsin homes reported 254 residents had contracted COVID-19. That was down from a high of 854 new cases the week of November 9.

But since the first week of vaccinations, nursing home cases have dropped 97%, their lowest level since May.

An analysis by the research arm of the American Health Care Association found that new cases dropped at a faster rate in nursing homes that had received vaccine than in ones that hadn’t. The analysis compared 797 homes that had vaccinated residents and staff in late December with more than 1,700 homes in the same counties that had not vaccinated.

Along with nurses, doctors and other health workers, residents and staff of nursing homes were the first Wisconsinites to get vaccinated. Most nursing home residents have now received both doses of the vaccine.

These dramatically improved numbers increase optimism about the promise of the vaccine.

WISCONSIN COVID-19 VACCINE STATS

Total doses administered: 1,568,329

Wisconsin residents with at least one dose: 986,387 (16.9% of the population)

Residents with both doses: 548,343 (9.4% of the population)

Residents 65 and older with at least one dose: 592,772 (58.3% of 65+ population)

For people wanting help with vaccine-related questions, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services has launched a toll-free telephone hotline: 844-684-1064.

Dedicated to Quality Care

The Wisconsin Caregiver Academy is dedicated to ensuring quality care at community-based residential facilities and continues to train trainers and caregiving staff.

New train-the-trainer sessions have been scheduled through June 2021. When taking a train-the-trainer course, employees can become state-approved trainers for assisted living providers. This eliminates the cost and burden of having to bring in outside trainers into your facility to train staff. You, an employee or a consultant can become a state-approved trainer!

See All Dates by Topic:

Medication Administration
Standard Precautions
Fire Safety
First Aid and Choking

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COURSE
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Wisconsin nursing homes see a 97% drop in COVID-19 cases since the first week of vaccinations.” Sarah Volpenhein and Alison Dirr. March 4, 2021.

Lessons from Caregiving

According to recent research by AARP, one in six of our co-workers is likely caring for a loved one in addition to work and family. This is a daunting prospect for most of us, but life is made up of moments, and there are some lessons to be learned from caregiving, which might in fact add value to the rest of your life.

Here are six lessons provided by Guideposts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to inspiring the world to believe that anything is possible with hope, faith and prayer.

Self-care first.

This will mean different things for different people, encompassing any/all of the following: consistent sleep, adequate exercise, recreation, good nutrition, stress-reduction techniques and a sense of humor.

Mistakes are fixable.

Perfectionism can handicap the efforts of caregivers, making every task a drudgery. Instead swap the perfectionism for self-compassion, because according to psychotherapist and author Anne Wilson Schaef, Ph.D., “Perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest order.”

It’s okay to not be okay.

Experts and experienced caregivers agree it’s not healthy for caregivers to wear a “I’m fine” mask and suffer alone. It’s not a sign of weakness to admit this. It’s a sign of bravery. Ask for help.

Compassion helps.

Caregiving teaches and nurtures compassion, the mother of all virtues. If we all used a little more compassion in our lives, the world – and caregiving – would be in a much better place.

Practice mindful communication.

Old family dynamics can often add stress to caregiving situations, making clear and open communication essential. Listen. Speak. Observe nonverbal cues.

Make room for hope.

The point of caregiving is holding hope between you and your loved one, despite the minutia of tasks — doctor’s visits, medications, meals. Or maybe because of. Hope is the reward for patience and kindness, and hope “never asks a crumb” of you.

Emily Dickinson’s poem “Hope is the thing with feathers” is an apt metaphor for caregiving and can provide a meaningful daily meditation.

New Dates Available for Train-the-Trainer
The Wisconsin Caregiver Academy has scheduled new train-the-trainer sessions through July 2021. When taking a train-the-trainer course, employees can become state-approved trainers for assisted living providers. This eliminates the cost and burden of having to bring in outside trainers into your facility to train staff. You, an employee or a consultant can become a state-approved trainer!

See All Dates by Topic:

Medication Administration
Standard Precautions
Fire Safety
First Aid and Choking

Caregiving is Fundamental to our Collective Thinking

Care 100 List

It’s a new year and now a new President. If you need inspiration for re-imagining and re-humanizing our care system, check out the Care 100 List, a first-of-its-kind list of dynamic leaders tackling the problems and opportunities of care in this country, guided by the belief that “care is fundamental to our collective thriving.”

The criteria for inclusion was:

Re-imagining the field
Anti-racist and anti-sexist
Human-centered
Silo-busting
Expectation-raising
Unapologetically joyful
Imaginative and solving real problems for real people

The list is less concerned with where contributors work – encompassing start-ups, corporations, nonprofit organizations, government, education and the arts – and more interested in how they work. The list includes 10 honorees in 10 approaches to care:

Warriors – bending the moral arc of the care universe
Builders – taking ideas and making them real
Weavers – helping people connect, knowing how to make them feel “seen”
Pioneers – forging the path the rest of us are trying to walk and widen
Backers – changing the reality of care investment
Dignifiers – elevating critical care work to its rightful place in our society
Truth-Tellers – telling fresh, accurate stories about who we are and how we show up for one another
Healers – understanding that life is interwoven with loss and resilience
Educators – enlightening us on how to help and how to ask for help
Visionaries – seeing beyond the horizon to the policies, products and cultural jumpstarts that will better our common life
Read 100 stories about real change-makers, including “warriors” like Katie Bethell, founder of PL+US, a long-time champion for families with a track record of spearheading impactful policy change, who is leading a movement to make paid leave the norm, not the exception.

The Care 100 List also came up with a list of the “five most powerful ideas” that they believe will be the most durable and transformative based on the year 2020 was and the vulnerabilities exposed by coronavirus.

We are re-imagining where and how we age.
We are pushing back against isolation
We are dignifying and professionalizing care work.
We are pricing and paying for care in new ways.
We are painting a more accurate picture of our nation’s families.

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New Dates Available for Train-the-Trainer
The Wisconsin Caregiver Academy has scheduled new train-the-trainer sessions through June 2021. When taking a train-the-trainer course, employees can become state-approved trainers for assisted living providers. This eliminates the cost and burden of having to bring in outside trainers into your facility to train staff. You, an employee or a consultant can become a state-approved trainer!

See All Dates by Topic:

Medication Administration
Standard Precautions
Fire Safety
First Aid and Choking

Holiday Ideas for Assisted Living

Holiday spirit is about what’s in your heart, and this year it seems more important than ever. Administrators and staff can create a holiday to celebrate for residents by planning small events that make memories for residents. Below are some ideas. Do one or two or more!

Celebrate Gingerbread Decorating Day – Saturday, December 9
Set up an area for residents to decorate either gingerbread cookies or gingerbread tree ornaments.

Gift-Wrapping Party
Collect lots of cardboard boxes for your residents to wrap during a fun gift-wrapping party. Pass out gift-wrapping paper for residents to wrap the boxes and tie the ribbon. Gift-wrap presents for family or gifts for under your facility’s tree.

Create a New Christmas Tree-Lighting Tradition
Create invitations to pass out to residents to invite them for your facility’s annual tree-lighting ceremony to mark the beginning of the holiday season. Beforehand, recruit residents to help you decorate your facility’s trees with ornaments and lights. Then invite residents to wear their holiday sweaters to the party, where you’ll serve hot cocoa and Christmas cookies. At the start of the party, have your administrator “flip the switch” to show-off the beautiful decorations, and if you have outdoor decorations, turn them on as well.

Santa Hat Luncheon
Host a luncheon and invite residents to wear a Santa hat if they’d like. Combine with an arts and crafts session beforehand where residents can decorate a simple and inexpensive felt hat with baubles, bling and put a unique style on the hat that is all their own. Hold a contest and provide awards for the most original hat, prettiest hat, ugliest hat, and so on.

Night Before Christmas
Celebrate Christmas Eve with a movie marathon. Watch tried and true favorites such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street and White Christmas. Complete the evening’s activities with a visit from Santa, who will pass out a small gift to each resident or candy canes if you’re on a tight budget.

Hot Chocolate Bar
Host a hot chocolate bar (offer sugar-free options) complete with candy canes, whipped cream, and sprinkles for a holiday experience residents will enjoy.

Door Decoration Competition
Provide decorations to participating residents so they can decorate their doors with a holiday theme. Decorating a door may be easier than an entire room and everyone can enjoy the decorations as they move throughout the facility.

Holiday Bingo
Finally, there’s the tried-and-true favorite bingo, dressed up for the holidays. Choose from a selection of designs. Make the game sweeter by using holiday candy as markers. Red and green-colored Hershey kisses or M&M are especially cheery.

Now Offering Training for Caregiving Staff
We know that the pandemic makes it difficult to bring new staff together for training. That’s why we’ve come up with a solution!

The Wisconsin Caregiver Academy has created online classes for your staff to receive either parts or all of their DHS 83.25 mandated continuing education.

RESOURCES:
S&S Blog, “6 Holiday Themed Party Ideas for Senior Residents.
Love To Know, “Fun and Festival Nursing Home Holiday Ideas,” Tamsen Butler.

Emotional Intelligence and Caregiving

A MEANINGFUL CIRCLE

Emotional intelligence (EI) has long been embraced by the business community, and leaders are coached to enlarge their empathy and understanding of employees in order to address fundamental interpersonal and emotional needs in the workplace.

But does EI help in caregiving? It turns out yes.

That was the result of a multi-year caregiver study conducted by Dr. Dafna Hadar-Pecker.

She found that EI enabled professional caregivers to achieve a higher level of understanding, and consequently offer a better degree of care.

Caregivers with high EI are not immune to the negative aspects of their profession: the day-to-day need to cope with difficult issues and the physical and emotional pain.

However, caregivers with higher EI were able to avoid compassion fatigue and were more successful experiencing “compassion satisfaction.”

Says Hadar-Pecker, “EI is a tool that tells [caregivers] it’s okay to feel something deeply because you are doing something that is meaningful and valuable, and as a result it helps the treatment programs. It becomes a kind of circle.”

Further, she says, “An individual with high EI knows how to create a strategy to navigate through the negative aspects and positive aspects.”

What is Emotional Intelligence (EI)

EI is generally understood to mean the ability to comprehend and manage our emotions while simultaneously understanding the emotions of others.

For caregivers and other healthcare workers, emotional intelligence can be categorized into four areas of particular importance: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management.

Self-Awareness – Far from being self-indulgent, self-attention and self-care are essential, so that you can continue to help and serve.
Ask yourself:

Am I aware of my emotions?
Am I aware of how I am expressing them and impacting others?
What is the tone of my self-talk?
Are my basic human needs being met?

Self-Management – Becoming more aware of your emotions and how you’re expressing them gives you the information you need to better manage your responses.

Ask yourself:

Do I have effective way to navigate emotional triggers?
What is within my zone of control?
Am I making time for sleep, nutrition, and exercise?
Do I have a support network and do I give myself permission to lean on it?
What brings meaning and purpose to my life?

Social Awareness – Taking care of yourself is what allows you to take good care of others.

Ask yourself:

Do I listen to others first to understand rather than rush to respond?
Can I identify and name others’ emotions accurately?
Whose work haven’t I recognized?

Relationship Management – While social awareness is tuning into others, relationship management is using this awareness to have successful interactions with them.

Ask yourself:

Am I bringing extra patience, and assuming the best about others?
As a caregiver, am I being transparent with information?
Are my communications frequent, clear, and open to feedback?
Am I going slow at key moments, including moments of thanks?

When caregivers cultivate higher EI, they feel more rewarded by their work, and the patient is the ultimate beneficiary.

Cultivate Empathy and Understanding
Wisconsin Caregiver Academy has created two specialized online live courses to enable you to learn how to honor the needs and desires of your patients. “Negotiated Risk Agreements: Balancing Risk, Responsibility & Rights” takes place on Thursday, November 12 from 9-11 a.m. “Clearing the Muddy Waters of Individual Service Plans and Assessments” takes place in two parts: Thursdays December 3 and December 10, from 8 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Learn more and register. With enhanced awareness and communication comes enhanced care.

RESOURCES:
Caregivers, Caregiving and Emotional Intelligence, Open Letter, The Open University of Israel.
How Health Care Workers Can Take Care of Themselves, Harvard Business Review, David P. Fessell and Daniel Goleman, May 20, 2020.
Why Emotional Intelligence is Vital for Remote Workers, Josh Millet, Forbes Human Resources Council, September 30, 2020.

That’s the Spirit!

Local Facilities Make Sure Social Distancing Doesn’t Mean Total Isolation

Nursing homes have been hard hit with the impact of coronavirus. In Wisconsin, visitors are restricted from visiting residents except for situations of compassionate care. Families and residents miss their regular interactions, and it can be a struggle especially for resident to maintain good spirits.

In response, facilities in Wisconsin and elsewhere have turned up the creativity, working diligently to keep surprise, joy and connection in the daily lives of their residents and staff.

Many have come up with activities and events that residents and staff enjoy so much they’ve appealed to administrators to keep them going even when operations go back to a version of normal.

Connection

Many facilities have purchased tablets and smartphones to make it possible for family to Facetime or Skype residents. “For a lot of people, this is all new to them,” said one activities director. “To see their loved one on an iPad or a cellphone…the smiles are unbelievable.”
In Minnesota, where the restrictions have expanded to include one designated “essential caregiver,” some facilities have created three-sided Plexiglass booths to allow a resident and essential caregiver to visit without a mask, which can be problematic if there’s a hearing or mental impairment. “Connections are important for everybody, any age, any ability or disability,” said a community relations manager.

Surprise

A facility in Washington County has developed “hallway cart events.” Residents sit in their doorways while staff members push a cart down the hallway. Each day, the cart has something different, such as root beer floats or ice cream. Residents can enjoy a treat and talk to their neighbors, while observing social distancing.
Facility staff will try to get a laugh from residents by dressing up as clowns or wearing an inflatable sumo wrestler outfit.
Other activities developed by staff include wandering the hallways playing their guitars, helping conduct hallway bingo and leading card-writing campaigns to loved ones and staff members

Joy

A favorite at one facility is “noodle ball.” The seniors sit in a circle, six feet apart, while batting a ball around with pool noodles.
Making paper airplanes and flying them down each hallway (so everybody could see them) was popular.
Most essential is making it possible for residents to see visitors through windows, along with animal visitors.

Although the focus might be on residents, staff are not excluded from uplifting activities. It’s a time of extraordinary stress for them, too. Facilities are providing daily snacks or weekly catered lunches. One facility set up a “decompression room,” filled with aromatherapy, meditation tapes, puzzles and access to a counselor.

One activities director commented that it’s a great time to try new things to see which are most embraced for boosting spirits. Even after the long haul of COVID-19, there’s no reason special activities and mood-lifting strategies can’t continue.

It’s all about momentum say social workers and psychologists when it comes to raising spirits. Facilities want to come up with activities they can stick with.

If learning about the distinct needs of the elderly and specializing in geriatrics inspires you, check out our new certificate program in Geriatric Healthcare. You can help redefine healthy aging.

RESOURCES:
“Long-Term Care Employees Get Creative to Offer Outdoor Visits,” INFORUM, Andee Erickson, July 13, 2020.
“Creative Activities Helping Seniors at Area Nursing Homes Cope with Pandemic,” Observer-Reporter, Jon Andreassi, April 23, 2020.
“COVID-19 Survey: Nursing Homes’ Top Strategies for ‘Keeping Spirits Up,’ McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, James M. Berklan, April 2, 2020.

Maintaining Patient Care of the Highest Quality

WISCONSIN ESTABLISHES NEW GRANT PROGRAM

Governor Evers has established a new grant program in order to maintain patient care of the highest quality. The new grant program is funded by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and totals $100 million dollars.

The funding will support emergency medical services, home and community-based services and long-term care providers such as skilled nursing and assisted living facilities.

“These providers need this additional funding to maintain patient care of the highest quality,” said Department of Health Services Secretary-designee Andrea Palm. “The services they provide save lives on a daily basis, and that is especially true during this pandemic.”

A Light at the End of the Tunnel

DEALING WITH DEMENTIA

Assisted living facilities have been hard-hit by the coronavirus. Thankfully, Wisconsin is faring better than some states, but families of dementia patients are facing a special kind of heartache. The “no visit rule” is crushing for families and facilities that in a more normal time would be encouraging family visits.

A dementia diagnosis takes a toll on families, and the pandemic has added to that burden. Dementia patients are often confused and require physical touch to connect, and the technology that has been uniting the rest of us is unfathomable to them.

In this kind of environment, it’s reassuring to know that Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services (DHS) is working with partners across the state to implement a new Wisconsin State Dementia Plan called DEMENTIA-CAPABLE WISCONSIN.

The plan was informed by a statewide survey that took place in 2018, generating 1,600 responses from people with memory loss, family members, caregivers and professionals who work with individuals suffering from dementia.

According to research, 242,000 people in Wisconsin will be affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia by 2040, doubling from today’s numbers. This growth is at the core of DEMENTIA-CAPABLE WISCONSIN and its goal of improving the quality of life for individuals affected by dementia.

The intention of DEMENTIA-CAPABLE WISCONSIN is to prioritize the needs identified by the survey, namely:

More options for people with dementia who are in crisis.
Better care for people with dementia in assisted living and nursing homes.
Greater awareness in our state about dementia and brain health.

A Steering Committee and leadership teams have been created to help in the main focus areas of communities, health care, crisis response and facilities.

In addition, a communications team will be creating a website for DEMENTIA-CAPABLE WISCONSIN. Until the website is ready you can subscribe to receive email updates.

If you’re a care facility with dementia patients, Wisconsin Caregiver Academy offers Train the Trainer courses addressing the unique challenges of dementia. Learn more.