Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Personalities in Rest Homes

I had a conversation the other day with a person from the industry who said there was a problem with caregivers not showing empathy to residents, similar to Psychopathic Personality. Is this your experience?

I believe we do have a lot of bully's working in our industry which makes me very sad but while some of it may be calculated and intentional, I believe most of it comes back to two things.

1. They have this warped understanding of their job being one that They are in charge and Tthey are there to get the person in their care to do what They tell them. After all They have to look after them!!!! They don't understand that their job does not include taking the power away from the person in their care. Does not mean they control them.

2. They don't know what empathy is. They have no conception of what it is to connect with a person, to listen, understand and be present with another person and help them get their needs met. No one ever did this for them! They had to do the best they could to SURVIVE. That is all they know. Survival means earning as much money as they can to feed themselves, send money home, buy "toys" and certainly not get emotionally involved in their work.

Do you understand what I am saying? Are there any other people who see it like I do or are there really a lot of bully's or psychopathic personality types working in Caregiving?

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