| Overcoming Barriers to effective working with older
family carers. |
| We have already seen in the section 'Understanding the importance
of working with families' how crucial it is to appreciate the important
role families' play in the lives of learning disabled men and women.
In this section we look more specifically at the barriers that there
are to developing good working relationships between families and
services; and the particular difficulties involved in developing effective
work with older family carers. |
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The aims of this section are to:
- Identify the barriers to good working
relationships, between families and services
- Consider what barriers currently exist
in your workplace or service
- Consider ways of working to dismantle
these barriers.
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Matt Janicki (‘Help For Caring
For Older People Caring For An Adult With A Developmental Disability’,
NYDD. 1996.), based on his extensive experience in the
US of working with older family carers and their learning disabled
adult children, provides the following guidelines for
working with families: |
Guidelines for working families - growing older
together
- Build trust
- Listen to the family (don't offer what
you cannot deliver)
- Acknowledge a job well done
- Skip jargon
- Help and support - don't control
- Begin with pressing concerns but recognise
deeper concerns
- Respect cultural values and traditions
but do not stereotype
- Work with the family
- Ask how families make decisions
- Values - be clear about yours and theirs
- Don't give up
Ref
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Exercise 11
Ask your self this question
"What are some of the barriers to effective working with
older family carers in your opinion?
Make a list of all the things that 'get in the way' of developing
good working relationships with older family carers in your
experience."
Keep hold of this initial list because we will return to
it later!
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