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Compassionate Care for the Caregiver
Third Annual Elder Care Conference
September 6, 2018
Dorrie Fontaine RN, PhD, FAANDean and Professor
……………………………………………“The urgency of slowing down…”
- Pico Iyer
What are some of the biggest worries for a caregiver of the elderly?
Pam Brandon, Caregiving Coping Skills (2018)
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"... Plants are born tender and pliant; dead they are brittle and dry...
The hard and stiff will be broken. The soft and supple will prevail."
- Tao Te Ching, 500 B.C.
STRESS RESILIENCE
Contemplative Practices
STRESS RESILIENCE
Self care is not selfish
How can the practice of mindfulness/noticing create a greater sense of well-being?
What would pausing mean in your own life?
Helpful compassionate practices
Noticing
Pausing
Compassion as a Global Remedy
HHDL 2012
Paramount Theatre
Compassionate Care Initiative Jonathan Bartels RN, BSN
The Pause
Bartels, J. (2014). The pause. Critical Care Nurse, 30:74-75.
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Compassion practices promote…
Awareness of our connection with others
Feelings of happiness for other people
Genuine desire to alleviate suffering of others
Improved mood and less stressed
Susan Bauer-WuTussi and John Kluge Endowed Professor2013-2016President of Mind and Life
Stop, pause
Take a few slow, deep breaths and Tune in
Open and Observe, notice what’s on your mind and how you feel
Proceed with awareness, kindness, and wise action (or wise inaction)
CATCH YOURSELF… Overwhelmed, angry, agitated, worried, distracted, mind racing, scared, critical (of self and others)
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Mindfulness is a way of being and relating to ourselves, our circumstances, one another, and the world around us.
Susan Bauer-Wu (2011)
“The science of finding focus…”
Health
Immune system
Neuroplasticity
Well-being
Based on Research Mindfulness facilitates:
More Focus
More awareness of what is around you
More fully present
Less rigid in thinking
Less fearful
Less stressed out
UVA COMPASSIONATE CARE INITIATIVE
What are we doing at UVA?……………………………………………
Nursing
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Being present …fully present
Nursing
What are we doing at UVA?……………………………………………
Nursing Nursing
Nursing
CCI
“ambassadors”
Nursing
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•Mindfulness Meditation: Guided meditations offered
3x a week
•Yoga: offered 3x every week
•T’ai Chi: Offered once each week
•Chair massage: offered weekly. 10 minute chair
massages over 2 hours
•Other sessions offered monthly
– Mindful lunches, reflective/creative writing,
creativity/art workshops, chair yoga
Nursing
CCI’s drop-in programs……………………………………………
3 C’s
3 C’s for cultivating a Pause in Your Life
First
Consider a contemplative practice
3 C’s for cultivating a Pause in Your Life
Next
Carve out time for gratitude. Start
a gratitude journal of just writing down 3 things you are grateful for every night… do it for 21 days and it is a habit.
3 C’s for cultivating a Pause in Your Life
Third
Cultivate a practice of kindness towards yourself and others
Resources
Bartels, J. (2014). The pause. Critical Care Nurse, 30:74-75.
Bauer-Wu, S., Fontaine, D. (2015). Prioritizing clinician wellbeing: The University of Virginia’s Compassionate Care Initiative. Global advances in health and medicine, 4(5):16-22.
Fontaine, D. K., Rushton, C.H., & Sharma, M. (2014). Cultivating compassion and empathy. In M. Plews-Ogan & E. Beyt (Eds.). Wisdom leadership in academic health care centers: Leading positive change. London: Radcliffe Publishing, 92-110.
Fontaine, D. K. Can empathy and compassion be learned? Editorial, Daily Progress, January 6, 2013.
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Resources
Fontaine, D. K., Bauer-Wu, S. & Germano, D. (2014) The architecture of resilience. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dorrie-k-fontaine/the-architecture-of-resil_b_4560762.html
Marturano, J. (2014). Finding the space to lead: A practical guide to mindful leadership. New York: Bloomsbury Press.
Salzburg, S. (2014). Real happiness at work: Meditations for accomplishment, achievement, and peace. New York: Workman Publishing.
