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Redefining Dementia
resources and helpful life experiences, the podcast will look to connect with the audience to provide helpful and meaningful takeaways.
Redefining Dementia
Part 1: Meaningful Engagement in Dementia Care with Maurie Voisey-Barlin
When Maurie Voisey-Barlin, an elder engagement specialist with a knack for mischief, joins the conversation, you know you're in for a treat. From sunny Australia, Maurie enlightens us with approaches to dementia care that break the mold, emphasizing the need to harvest history and foster genuine connections with those experiencing cognitive decline. His humourous, warm stories remind us that through curiosity, improvisation, and genuine human connection, we can significantly enrich the lives of our elders.
This episode is a celebration of the art of collaboration in healthcare, where every team member plays a pivotal role in crafting a culture of person-centred care. Together, we discuss the immense value of preserving personal histories and extending empathy within dementia care, hoping to inspire and offer solace to those who navigate this challenging yet profoundly human journey.
Maurie's Bio and LinkedIn
Eden Alternative & Dr. Bill Thomas
Dr. Al Power - Seven Domains of Well-Being
Jane Verity
Dan Cohen - Music & Memory
Judy Cornish
About our Hosts:
https://www.personcentreduniverse.com/about/
Welcome to Redefining Dementia. I'm Ashley King and I'm Daphne Noonan. Thank you for joining us. We are your co-hosts as well as the co-founders of Person Centered Universe, where we help you provide person-centered dementia care at home, at work or in your community. Through the Redefining Dementia podcast, we are striving toward a better world for those affected by dementia by sharing resources and insights from experts around the world.
Speaker 2:When consuming resources or media about dementia, the focus is often on the challenges, stigma and fear that may accompany a diagnosis of dementia. This podcast seeks to shift that narrative to focus on and celebrate living well with dementia and what that means for caregivers, through the sharing of stories, resources and helpful life experiences. We hope to provide you with helpful and meaningful takeaways for your journey ahead as special note before we begin.
Speaker 1:This information shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only. If you or someone you know is experiencing symptoms of dementia, we encourage you to seek medical advice from a qualified healthcare professional.
Speaker 3:We are so excited to introduce our Redefining Dementia podcast listeners to Maury Voisey Barlin, who joined us all the way from Australia. Maury is an engagement specialist who works with elders living in residential aged care. He delivers purpose-driven, inclusive and heart-led care through creative elder engagement sessions where he seeks to create playful, fun and meaningful relationships with residents living with cognitive decline. During this episode, maury shares how his own life experiences have taught him about the importance of harvesting history I love that word from the elders he works with. How humor, therapy, curiosity and just the right dose of mischief can facilitate meaningful breakthroughs. Why being your authentic self is so important when it comes to engaging with people living with dementia. We hope you enjoy this uplifting, meaningful and such a fun discussion with Maury Voisey Barlin.
Speaker 4:Here we go bingo, and thank you so much for being interested in my work, and I have a few questions for you which I'd really like to ask as well. Daphne, you studied at Bradford, did you? Is that right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we both did.
Speaker 4:So you both did that.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah we did it together actually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we did our. We didn't actually do like a degree from Bradford, but we went and became certified in dementia care mapping back in 2013. And that was kind of the beginning of our business was when we became. We got certified in the dementia DCM, dementia mapping. So, yeah, but both were in Fredericton, which is in New Brunswick, canada, and we both went to a small undergraduate institution it's called St Thomas University in Fredericton and studied gerontology as like a multi-disciplinary kind of approach to Jero. So we've been ever since we were young. In our careers we were very much mentored by the folks who are at that university, who very much focus on the meaning of people's life stories, and we are very influenced by, like a narrative worldview of the world.
Speaker 4:So when you say narrative based approach, you're talking about ancestral history, anecdotes, oppositions.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's kind of expanded. So we again very fortunate that we have we grew up kind of where we are in our careers because we have two very established individuals who are actually both now retired from St Thomas, dr Bill Randall and Dr Gary Kenyon, and they were, I'm just going to say they're pioneers, like around the world. They've developed the concept of narrative gerontology and as life story work over their careers and then it's expanded very much into the concept of narrative engagement, narrative care, like integrating someone into care planning and into approaches of how we approach care or how we engage them, and that's like very much a passion of both of ours is is how we approach our work a lot of the time.
Speaker 4:And that speaks to me very deeply, because I think one of the things I would say about that and I guess we should talk about that in the interview is that you know to really discover a person's personhood, you know the activities officers traditionally get. There's a lot of papers that you get when you put your, your loved one, into aged care that have to be filled out, but the one at the bottom tell us about mum or dad doesn't get filled out and very often that's not known. And then I remember doing some research for the Heart's Health company where I learned this work and I was talking to people that were whose, whose, loved ones. There was nothing known about them and they were living in the memory support unit, which is like a dementia specific unit, and that was oh no, dad didn't? He's not interested in anything anymore. He has, he's got dementia. And this is constant answer of people being defeated and overwhelmed and maybe guilty, but also just given up. And I would say, oh, what were they into? I know he's not interested in that. And then finally I started to say, look that, okay, I get it. My dad.
Speaker 4:I lost my dad to dementia and it was very hard. Before you go. Can I just ask you what did your dad do when they came home from work? And it'd be like, oh, yeah, he used to come home. He'd take his suit off and put his gum boots on and his dungarees. I said, what would you do? And he'd go out and water the garden. Oh, he had a garden, did he? Yeah, he had a fern house. Oh, he liked ferns. Yeah, yeah, and the fern house was it big. Oh, it was massive. He built it. It was a timber slat fern house. And you're like, okay, that's what I'm looking for. That's the story. That's what I need to know about your dad.
Speaker 4:And I think that family members don't really understand the value of anecdotes life story. You know the yarns that we have in families. We had a pet turkey. I went to get a pet turkey when I was five years old, in a little box, and I was giggling at it, scratching around, and I said we've got to give him a name, dad. And he said he's already got a name and I said what is it? He said it's called din-din. Now, I don't know if you know it. Yeah, I didn't know that's what din-din meant. And you know, some time after that, around December 23,. Din-din went missing and we never found din-din. The side gate was the dog, was there the chick? We never saw din-din again.
Speaker 4:And then when I was 17 or 18, we were having a family dinner and said to dad whatever happened to old din-din and dad said well, what was his name? And we were like no. And so I said to dad where did you cook him? And he said down at Fred Kettings place. So I got up and I went and where are you going? I said I'm going down to see Fred. So I knocked on the door. I'm Murray Jr. So that was my father's name. Fred opens the door and says ah, get a young Murray, how can I help you? And I said I've got a bone to pick with you. And he hung his head. This is like 10, 12 years later hung his head and said I knew this day would come. So you know, that's an anecdote that I used with my dad.
Speaker 4:I don't use the term wanderer. I hate that term. It implies aimlessness, it's indirect. If you see somebody walking, searching is the term I use. If you see them, they're purposeful, they're looking probably for something that makes sense or for comfort, and my father was very much in that zone with his vascular dementia and I would talk and he was a storyteller. So I would say whatever happened to old Dindin, how could you have done that? Ah, he looked up at me and he'd start the story.
Speaker 4:I knew the story of Maria Brown, who broke his heart, and the reason he left his little hometown. I knew all the stories and I would walk with him and talk with him and use the stories. I was fortunate at the time that I was already beginning to do this work. Anyway, I digress majorly, but if anyone was to look after me and care for me, any of you out there to care for me know the story of Dindin. Yeah, know the story of Maria Brown. Know that I love the Beatles but I like George Harrison. Know that. Don't put me in front of I don't know what you guys use, but it's Fox News or whatever it is. Put me in front of ABC, which is our independent TV station, and leave it on. Don't change it. I'll watch it for 24 hours. Know who I am? Anyway, sorry, I got on a rant there.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh. Anyone think that I had like five different spin-off conversations, that we need to be here all day, but no, sorry. No, don't put. Please don't apologize. We're so happy that you're here and we're very. Ashley and I are also both talkers, so we're very OK with, like a very nonlinear approach to this.
Speaker 4:OK, I'm going to show you a couple of things while I'm here. Can you see that?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 4:So this is the hand idea. It was a colleague of mine. He came up with this idea where he'd get the elder to come to the window and put their hand up. So I credit Ben Hurd with that idea. But what we would do is put the hand up, we draw around the hand and then we have all these like flowers hand flowers all over the window. You can see that I put smiley faces. Sometimes I would write their name, and so that was one device I'm just going to probably give it a little clumsy.
Speaker 4:So there's that. I mean I can send you a couple of photos, if that's helpful, later on. This one is I made it. It's like being on the cover of Rolling Stone here, oh my.
Speaker 2:God, I've seen this.
Speaker 5:That's a me I definitely remember when that came out, yeah.
Speaker 4:So that was me. I took that on LinkedIn.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 4:I jumped on LinkedIn and I pumbled it so you can see the glasses. The glasses are drawn with chalk markers and then to the left of the hand is a heart.
Speaker 4:So I draw hearts a lot and I would also write we miss you or we love you. And you have to write backwards, so you use capitals. And when I was doing it I was thinking, oh, I can't do S's and F's and I went don't worry about it, they'll tell me if it's wrong. So sure enough, they go. You got it back to front, you idiot.
Speaker 4:You know, they would teach you how it all worked, one more because this is such a beautiful thing which I'm very proud. I mean, you know I was I was. I was blessed with a gift of an idea.
Speaker 2:It just came to me and it just worked, and then this is brought to you too, by the looks of it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, oh my God, that is perfect. Look at her.
Speaker 4:So that's yeah, look at those eyes and look, she was always beautiful, be the lipstick and a blue jumper and Mark that's Mark for it she's. She got a wings recently and passed away, but her family used that photo in the presentation of her celebrating her life and I still in touch with the family and I used to draw the glasses when they started doing the families. I would draw the glasses down low for the little grandkids when they were visiting so they could look through the glasses and, granted, the adults could look through the top. But it was also about bringing people to the window and engaging with them. So I use I don't have a photo of it here. There's one of Barry here. This is quite amusing because my general manager at this place. She used to encourage a lot of mischief. Can you see what he's got in his hand?
Speaker 5:Oh, I guess a picture.
Speaker 2:I want a picture of you.
Speaker 4:And it says wanted for crimes against humour. The manager made made that for Barry, because I do. I call it mutual mischief. Barry is the one that I really kind of understood this with and was able to articulate. Where I try to create opportunities for him to be mischievous. We mischievous together. So we would write letters to the manager. He'd say you're worth my money. And I'd say, let's ask Robin. So we'd write a letter together in person or on Zoom, and then I'd send it to him the activities team had printed out, and then he'd he'd send it off. I'll do one more, because this is kind of kind of cute and then I'll knock it off, but that this is such a classic.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing, that game, and it's good because I took to yeah on the window, so you, you've got the text is, so you don't have to get it right.
Speaker 4:Or you can just refuse, or you can just be naughty and put it wherever you feel like you want to put the X on the north. So that was quite fun.
Speaker 2:Anyway, that is not yeah, no, it's. Thank you for sharing those, so I'm going to jump back, kind of jump back a little, yes let's go, let's go backwards Alaska question. The question I have is just because you have such an interesting background and you know how did you kind of find yourself in the situation where you are a creative engagement specialist as a because your background came from theater or the arts Like and so happened.
Speaker 4:Yeah, look, that was a long journey. I sort of hovered around the the Luke Skywalker side of the arts Rather than the day I always did. I didn't want to be a famous not something that's been interesting to me and I didn't want to be on TV. I always was interested in theater and I was always interested in social Therapeutics, but also theater for social change. So I was involved in a in a drama school, an amateur drama school, adult, adult education, really and all sorts of people came along and I saw their lives change. You know, when they got involved in theater they're confidence there. They're standing in the community, people that had broke up in relationships that needed to find themselves again or meet a new community travelers. It just wanted to meet people or doctors and Business people that weren't comfortable getting up in front of Audiences and speaking and running meetings. So I saw the power of theater very early and I did that for about 17 years. But on the side, the theater company got involved in this project with the homeless community which was a forum theater project. And to explain forum theater very quickly, it's from Augusto Bewhiles towards a poor theater or theater of the oppressed. I should say sorry that, not towards a poor theater, that's gritauski theater of the oppressed.
Speaker 4:And basically you go into the community and you seek a story and then you work on that story with the community and then you present that story to the community and Then they watch. You know the story unfolds a short 20 minute story and then you go back and replay the story but the audience is allowed to freeze it and say, freeze, I think he should punch his father in the face. And you say that's a great idea. Wow, wouldn't that be fun. And the actors are looking at you like you're mad. And then Then you would say put it to the audience, go, look, that's a great idea and I do like that idea. Let's park it because he's on parole, so maybe that's not the best. Is there something else he could do? And if not, we'll come back to that. So the audience then debates and discusses or argues what might happen, and then you put it to a vote and then we would play out what the audience chooses, that the, the, the hero of our story should do, the Protagonist.
Speaker 4:And then I try to get the person that suggested it from the community to overtake, to take over from the actor. So it's really was really chaotic and lively and Exceptionally deep, but it required a lot of authenticity. So so I I was doing this kind of work for about 12 years in the homeless community and and you know they they are very good at reading people and reading authenticity very quickly, because that's a a survival tool of survival. And Then I worked in the disability sector for a few years doing creative work, people, young people living with a disability and I I I all of a sudden found myself out of work with the. It's a long story. I I upset the boss and it was my fault. I take full for responsibility for that.
Speaker 4:But I lost my job and I was looking for work and people said look, you know, you're really great at this, you're great at that. People tell you how good you are, but they don't have anything for you. And I said can you help me find a job if you think I'm so good? And most people thought I was mad. But two people said Okay, leave it with me. And two people those two people read both recommended ArtSelf Institute. Artself Institute had begun a creative engagement program using what they called human therapy. In about 2011, I think, they launched and it was off the back of a a study, the smile study, which was able to show that they could reduce agitation levels by 20% with ongoing weekly visits from someone delivering human therapy, which was not only humor but a relational kind of ongoing Session. And this came off the back of, I guess you know, the clown doctors.
Speaker 4:So the clown doctors is the humor foundation basically. So this study was launched by the humor foundation and then there was a breakaway group called ArtSelf Institute, which went away from the clown model and more to a use of PACE model. So I joined that company and I was with that company for a number of years. They were charity and I was big. I became a you know, a recruiter and a trainer because I had that huge background in training non-actors and so I found myself working in In the company in all capacities, training and delivering the program, and so when the charity went broke and Folded, I had a lot of knowledge and a lot of Ability, I had a lot of understanding on as to how things worked. So we had 90-ish performers who were working in the industry and I tried to help everyone Become independent deliverers and unfortunately only ten of us made the transition. So there's like 80, 80 odd people that we lost from aged care that were working creatively. So that's where I began to start to do the work myself.
Speaker 4:But I guess, if, if I was to step back, I trained as an actor and I went to a school called theater in a pee and so theater in a pee, and had had a very much a community theater strand to it and I got into a few different arts Schools and I chose the pee and because to me they they just had this community theater strand which I thought was going to heavily influence my work. And by God it was such a great choice because I met a great lecturer, a two great lecturers, and and Marshall and Gordon Beatty. And Gordon Beatty ran the, the community theater component, and then Marshall was running the kind of theoretical side of things and I remember Gordon saying to me what, what do you want to do, mate, what would you like to do? And I said I want to hang out with you when you go to meetings and see how you work. And by sitting with him and watching how he operated as an arts practitioner, trying to sell ideas to people, it really didn't have a clue what it entailed. I was really mesmerized by his capacity to talk, to talk, just to talk, but also to, to, to woo people and to bring ideas to fruition. And so I learned the craft of acting. But I learned about management and I learned about communication and working with people.
Speaker 4:And I guess if I could say anything about myself, I would say that I'm not scared of talking to anyone in any leadership role and I'm particularly drawn to clinical leaders because I'm not afraid of speaking, you know, in their terms and my terms, and trying to find where the intersection is. So, anyway, yeah, so my background is in theater and I think it's interesting. I think it's interesting because people say, well, what's acting got to do with this work? And that's a really good question, because I know you sent that to me and you know the answer to that is is that as an actor, your job is to recreate human behavior on stage or on film. So you're recreating human behavior and to do that you have to really understand what drives people.
Speaker 4:And it's kind of I wouldn't say psychology 101, I'd say it's psychology 0.65 maybe. And so you're really trying to have a deep understanding of what drives a person and what motivates them or what fears block them. And then you're trying to figure out how do I express that? With gesture and with facial expression and with the cadence of speech. And so you're starting to really observe people and as a people watcher and actors and great people watchers you really have this innate sense. You develop this sense of what is going on for a person that's before you. And then when I combine that with improvisation, which is one of my big skills, I think the combination is quite powerful in this work, because I'm not trying to entertain. I'm hoping it's a bit entertaining, but I'm not trying to entertain. I'm trying to engage and bring a person into engagement.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, and specifically I can see how there's a direct correlation to how that would be such an amazing approach and a gift for you to find those kind of we call them magic moments with individuals who are living with dementia, right.
Speaker 6:Mm-hmm yeah.
Speaker 2:You're working to draw out and like I think you talked about it earlier the narrative of like kind of giving up and thinking that that person might not be interested or they might not be, and it's actually like, if you take the approach, that they are there and it's our job to figure out how we can meet them where they are and continue to meet them where they are and kind of never stop trying, right. And so that's what you just described, I think, is I mean, you used the term authentic earlier and I think that's a very authentic way of doing that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, no you. Just if I could just go back to the word authentic, because I think this is key. This is what I learned from my father, and I think that people often say what's the most important quality for an engagement specialist? Is it empathy? And I say no, it's not. It's actually curiosity, because I think when you are genuinely curious about what makes a person tick from that flow of authenticity and I think, Judy Cornish, my dear friend Judy Cornish, who I speak to often.
Speaker 4:She introduced me to the idea and I forget where she got it the idea of when we're living in dementia, what we lose is our rational thinking, but what steps forward? And where we dwell is in intuitive thinking. We start to read emotions, we start to read the room, and one thing that a person that's operating in the intuitive space is they can smell in authenticity a mile off, because that is what they're reading. Where they may no longer understand the transactional processes that are going between two people, they know how they feel and so, if they feel safe and if they feel like, wow, this person's genuine and they're meeting me and they're looking, because I really, I look, I just as you're doing right now. I can see that you do that too.
Speaker 4:When you look people in the eyes and people don't, it's really strange. And when you really look a person in the eye, they really, really, really. You look into their soul, and we say it acting, that the eyes are the window to the soul. So don't hide your eyes when you're acting and stay just the actors looking down all the time. You gotta look up, you gotta see in, because that's what we want. So I think curiosity is a big driver of my work. I'm innately curious, but second to that is mischief, I think.
Speaker 5:And I. Just before we get into this piece, I just want to mention two. There's two things. I think I'm also recognizing that your experience and your expertise in theater allows you to essentially be a master of drawing out that narrative, of we call it narrative.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Of our residents and people living with dementia, because so much of it are those non-verbal expressions which you would be so highly trained in. How to engage people without that non-verbal, in reading those non-verbal expressions?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's about. It's really about reading cues, and I think you have a music therapy background, Is that right?
Speaker 5:No recreation.
Speaker 4:Recreation. I read somewhere. Well, there's a music therapist here and she refers. She calls it attunement. You find this attunement to someone A lot of my sessions, so I don't know what your term is.
Speaker 4:There we use the term PRN, pro-reinato, the Latin term, which means prescribed as needed. So you know an example. Yeah, so we use that term. Yeah, so my mom was on blood thinners, couldn't have aspirin and she had sort of nerve pain so they were given urethane. So I have a PR, I offer a PRN session and the PRN session, you know, I have my regulars that I see I might have 12 or 15, and there's a PRN session and straight away the clinical team goes. Oh, I know what that means. So I offered that and that's more often than not it's used to as an exploratory session when we have a new resident that we don't know anything about, right? So I use a lot of prompts and I use A4 plastic folders and I have lots of pictures in them.
Speaker 4:I've got stacks of them and I might have old Fords, old Holdens or Chevy's, as you call them. I might have old soap advertisements, soap suds and washing. I might have graviliers and flowers and roses. Nurse, I have all sorts of things and I use those, and one of the ones that I used recently was my mother's wedding dress, which is so opulent and over the top my mother's mother was determined to send her only daughter off but also was the same stress, and I use that recently with someone I call it harvesting history is what I call it. I've had harvest history. I want to go back and find out what it is about a person that might give me a clue.
Speaker 4:And so I found out with Dorothy. There was a talk oh, she really liked the wedding that we had a wedding day, an anniversary day, and she liked, she really related to that because she used to make dresses and I was like, ah, okay, so I took in some old Jackie O'Nass or Jackie Kennedy photo of her in her wedding dress and then some, you know once from the turn of the century, and Dorothy was really drawn into it all of a sudden and started to. You know, I got a lot of information started to come out. So each week I go in with the wedding dresses and I saved my mom's one for week three. And just two days ago, Dorothy, I was sitting on. For some reason I sat on the floor. I still don't know why I did it, but I saw her under the bed of box and I asked her about it and it turned out to be her wedding album and she said would you like to see it? And I said I'd love to.
Speaker 4:So we looked through a wedding album. Now she got married. The second marriage was in the end of the 60s and she's a dressmaker, so her wedding outfits were all like mini skirts with really big, long sleeves and amazing, like really beautiful. But I was like they're a bit short. She goes oh yeah, they raised some eyebrows. But on top of the wedding album was a little EP record of Roy Orbison. She wears my ring and I said is this song? This is an important song, isn't it? She said yes, it is. I said was it played at your wedding? She said no, at the reception.
Speaker 4:And I said wow, and anyway, we talked about that At the end of the session when I closed up the album and I thanked her. I said I can't play that song and I can't sing like Roy Orbison, but I could get it on my phone. Would you like to hear it? And she said yeah, okay. So I played it and I held a hand and played the song and it's a very moving song when you think about what it meant for her. And so she thanked me and I said are you okay? She said yes, it was really good to hear.
Speaker 4:She doesn't express a lot so it's hard to know where she is sometimes. And she thanked me and I could tell by the way she squeezed my hand that it was a good thing. And that was pure exploration over three, four weeks of just thinking she related the staff member thinks to tell me about the dress and what Dorothy related to. And I was like just hey, moz, did you know this? Great, I get that information. What do I do with it? I get some pictures of wedding dresses. I check out how she responds before I know it she's really responding. And then I happen to see a box and bingo, there's the story and the song, so I guess Beautiful story.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4:And it's a very current one, and I have to say I did this presentation just the other day for some volunteers that do work in the community. We were talking about perception and my perception was I wasn't sure that Dorothy was enjoying my visits. I couldn't tell. And I asked the clinical manager her thoughts and she said it's funny, you should mention that because her daughter just spoke to us and she said that mum says that she loves Murray's visits and it's also important and what that tells me is is that we, as engagement specialists, as recreational therapists or anyone working in care, it's important not to underestimate the power of what you might be doing and to trust that what you're doing is probably doing something and your perception of what. Perceiving that she was uninterested and now that I know that I understand, because she's really expressionless and we're not talking about someone who's living with Parkinson's, with the mask, we're just talking about someone that doesn't express much with their face. That's a breakthrough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, wow, and I just, I mean that story is just, it doesn't need any more words. It's so beautiful, it's absolutely so beautiful and but I would go back to the absolute, I think, brilliance of you using the term PRN and you know, I mean, you know what, like. I mean it is kind of a bit like cheeky, like to do it, but it's the staff, like when you think about what situations that PRN is usually required in. That's something that, like in our work, ashley and I have always promoted, in whatever leadership position we are in or, you know, active provider of services, that everything else to be tried before the actual medicine or the like, the PRN medicine, and so just a very strategic way to take a part of the culture that's pretty embedded in long-term care, healthcare settings and, like, turn it on its head a little bit and just to say, like, you're the PRN.
Speaker 4:Thank you, because you know what? No one's ever said that and I thought it was genius. When I thought of it, I thought it was genius and no one said anything and I went no, maybe I'm just overblowing myself Now.
Speaker 5:I know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and to be like you know it's certain times of the day and stuff like it would. It would help in so many nuanced ways and I don't want to go too far down on a digression but with the staff to kind of reframe too right, like so if it's a time of day where it is the typical time where people might be, you know, getting a little bit restless or you know feeling that again, having you there at that time it would just be, there would be a lot of like very nuanced layers to how that could challenge the status quo.
Speaker 4:I guess in the thinking, yeah, and it's good, because I'm at six service partner sites and they're all really heavily engaged. There's very few people that might be cynical about what I do. If there are, I don't know about them. There's a few, there are a few, and that's my role to win them over. This is their workplace. I mean, it's mine too, but I'm a contractor. But do you have the term contractor there? Yeah, two would be better.
Speaker 4:So I'm a contractor and it's very easy to get rid of a contractor, so you gotta be careful I shouldn't have said that. And so it's my role to find out what it is they don't like about what I do and try and figure out how I can bring them on board or answer or feed that. I don't obsess myself with it, but I try and work at it, you know, because it's important. The collaboration is crucial because the collaboration occurred with Dorothy, because one of the care teams told me about her response to the wedding dress. You know, I have teams that come up to me and go do you see Mary Smith? And I go, no, and they go. Why they go? Oh, you know she doesn't have a family and she's been isolating in a room and I'll go okay. And so they come to me, you know, with suggestions and then I go back to my diversional therapist and I'll throw it around, and when you collaborate like that, there's a joy to it.
Speaker 4:But the other important thing in what I do is is that I need to be interacting with everyone. So when I walk in I'll go straight to the reception. I say, okay, have you got my dry cleaning? I really need it today and can you hold all calls? I'm not in today.
Speaker 4:Yes, so they'll say, and when the kitchen staff come out I say I ordered a hamburger about six weeks ago. Is that gonna be ready soon? So I'm kind of playing with everyone throughout, yeah, and I'm getting to know them, but I guess I'm valuing, or I do value them anyway, but I'm demonstrating or modeling that I'm interacting with them. But then also the residents or the elders I use the term elder the elders love the interactions between us and there is one person that spends a lot of time at the nurses station and we have a great time together with the staff and she'll turn it around and bag me out. So I think it's important for creatives to consider a broader role in terms of engaging everyone, because, whilst the elder is at the center of everything I do, there is a community around this and you're nodding there, and I think we're in agreement and we know that that community obviously is the staff, the floor staff, but it's the leadership and then it's the family.
Speaker 4:We've got the family that's around them and so if we bring all of those people to the table, everyone knows what we're doing and knows that we're doing things for the betterment of the world. Then everyone is kind of happy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Ashley and I always were famous for saying like, how can we ask our staff to be person-centered towards the residents if we are not creating person-centered approaches for our staff?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that is so true and I can't remember. I think it might have been the fish philosophy, which I know is somewhat old now, but I remember it's similar to Steven Lundin saying your staff are your first customers.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, absolutely.
Speaker 4:I love that. Yeah, and it's really true. You can use that. I think it's Steve Lundin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're ready.
Speaker 5:No, it's okay.
Speaker 4:Yeah, right, it's okay, I remember seeing the fish principles. You know that Seattle Fish Market there's a fish market name and they turned into a tourist attraction.
Speaker 4:You know that was going down the Gurgla and I remember him talking about it and I'm sure it was him and that just really struck me. It really struck me because if we're gonna do this person centered or relationship centered, as I like to talk about the way I work if we're gonna do this, we need to really live it and we know that if those around us that are working don't believe it, then they won't walk it.
Speaker 6:We hope you have enjoyed part one of our conversation with our friend Maury Voisey-Barlin. Make sure to tune in to part two when we continue our rich discussion with Maury about the importance of harvesting history and other meaningful engagement practices for persons living with dementia. Thank you so much for listening and if you've enjoyed this and other episodes, please leave us a review on your preferred podcast listening platform.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this episode of the Redefining Dementia Podcast. We hope that you have found this information helpful and inspiring. No matter where you find yourself in the dementia journey Whether you are a person living with dementia, a healthcare professional, family and friend care provider, or an ally we aspire to shift the narrative and redefine what dementia means to you.
Speaker 2:This podcast was made possible by the New Horizons for Seniors program. Our music is written and produced by Scott Holmes, the podcast was produced by Janna Jones, and we'd like to offer a very special thanks to our affiliates at Lifelong Inspiration and, of course, to our amazingly talented and knowledgeable guests who gave of their time to share their expertise with us. We'll see you, guys, next time.
