The decision to place a loved one in long-term care is a difficult one. It’s often filled with anxiety, skepticism, and shame for families. Facing the reality that their loved one needs more care than they can provide can be overwhelming, and families may not have time to process their feelings before quick admissions transpire. This can lead to friction between residents, families, and staff, resulting in unproductive and troubling interactions.
You see, families don’t know what they don’t know. They’re often coming with their mind already made up about how this is going to go. They have no idea what goes on in the day to day running of a seniors’ care home. That’s understandable. They probably thought their loved one’s end of life was going to be very different.
The challenge is to bridge these gaps and transform troubled narratives into a supportive and understanding environment.
The Now What Family Education Program is Your First Step in Fostering Trust in this New Relationship
It is an hour-long workshop delivered virtually because, honestly, families really need the time and space to look at both sides of this new experience with an outside perspective.
Once families understand how their actions and emotions are being perceived, positive, new relationships unfold.
It’s 100% possible to create a community at your Seniors’ Care Home where families feel confident in their decisions, trust and respect the staff, and communicate concerns effectively.
Mutual understanding and open dialogue create a supportive atmosphere, allowing staff to feel empowered and residents to live happier, fulfilling lives. But it’s hard if you don’t know how to start building these new relationships.
A Comprehensive Family Education Program
Our unique approach focuses on building trust, dismantling negative narratives, and fostering empathetic communication to create happier, more productive care communities.
Working with seniors’ care homes, we've witnessed the challenges that staff face while managing relationships with residents' families.
Our founder, Deborah Bakti, worked as an executive in seniors’ care for 11 years, and during that time she became a resident’s family member three times, with her husband, mom, and dad.
Those life changing experiences inspired her to leave her corporate career in 2017 so she could focus on helping seniors care homes and residents' families relate, appreciate and help each other as partners in care. After all, we have the same goal in mind - quality of life and care for our loved ones and residents.
The results won’t stop after the workshop.
Families will walk out the door with a copy of the Now What book and will continue their education to the realities of having a loved one in Seniors’ Care. Then you’ll nurture new relationships from a place of trust, empathy, and true understanding.
Kind Words
The results won’t stop after the workshop. Families will walk out the door with a copy of the Now What book and will continue their education to the realities of having a loved one in Seniors’ Care. Then you’ll nurture new relationships from a place of trust, empathy, and true understanding.
- Jo-Anne MCCool Maki
Ontario North Family Council Network
Deborah, this has been a difficult, heartwarming, and hopeful hour. Thank you for sharing your experience through stories and through your books.
One of my big takeaways from our time together is the lens of the new reality. As a care partner for my late grandma, I can appreciate the lens of this new reality in my new role as caregiver and not just granddaughter – and then of course as a staff member, the lens of the new reality for each person who is moving in.
You have highlighted so many opportunities for us as team members in our work, but also to support our residents and their family members…I really appreciate the reminder to be intentional in how we choose to show up and the energy we bring to the world and those around us.
In Grey LTC we’ve made an intentional commitment to supporting family members and caregivers with our Family Council and our DCP program, so we have a good foundation to take that to the next level with Deborah’s session helping guide us on this journey.
- Jennifer Cornell, Director of Long Term Care
Grey Gables, Lee Manor and Rockwood Terrace Care Communities
Thank you for presenting your "What Now?" webinar to our families. It was very successful, with much positive feedback from our attendees. Your webinar supports Ivan Franko Homes' continuing commitment to provide resources on seniors care to family members, staff and the broader community. It very effectively showed family members that they are not alone in the challenges one faces when a loved one first moves to a care home, and that tools, resources and support are available to help. It was a pleasure to meet and work with you. Please keep up your excellent work!
- Larissa Tkachenko, Ivan Franko Homes