Good Advice for All Professionals about Empathy

Eleanor Feldman Barbera, a long-term care psychologist, writing for professionals in long-term care settings, offers wise advice that is relevant  for any professional, about the importance of empathy and validation in addressing client concerns.  She begins:

“As a long-term care psychologist, one of my main tasks is to sit down and talk in-depth with residents on a regular basis. I’ve basically conducted 20 years of focus groups. The single most common comment I’ve heard from residents over the years: ‘I never thought I would end up in a place like this.’

 

While it’s probably not the case for people who entered swanky continuing care retirement communities of their own accord well in advance of a health crisis, many residents feel like it’s a personal failure to be in long-term care. They think if they’d done something different, or earned more money, or if they’d had children, or had a better relationship with their children, or if they had better children, or something, then they wouldn’t have ‘ended up’ in a long-term care home.”

For her specific advice, read “Addressing Residents’ Deepest Fears,” from McKnight’s Long-term Care News.