Grateful

 

Isn’t it interesting the number of different approaches and types of communications that exist? The main one that most people think of is verbal communication which is strange because a high percentage of communication is non-verbal. The tone of voice someone uses, their facial expression, the volume they speak at, whether they turn their body to you, where they put their arms and many more. Some of these only occur when you can see someone, with the pandemic that has been going on for the last couple of years a lot of time has been spent having interactions over the phone and for us that has included assessments too.

I have worked with some people for months and never seen what they look like. Its strange to think I could easily walk past someone in the street who I have spoken to numerous times a week and never realise. This has been the new way of working for a little while now and when you really think about it, it’s so strange. Don’t get me wrong most people have adapted to the change extremely well and others it has taken a bit longer, but we carry on, don’t we? We try and do what we can to carry on as close to normal as possible because what is the alternative?

I know when I was studying, we talked about different approaches that you can use when interacting with someone. Strength-based, person centred etc but the interesting thing is that all of these can still happen even if you have never seen or met that person because these types of approaches boil right down to what we do. Putting the people, we support at the middle of the process is embedded in law, legislation, and our Code of Ethics. We take approaches that look at a person’s strengths and focus on the positive instead of starting from a point of weakness and building up, we start at a point of strength and use that to propel someone forward. Feeling like you are already doing something right empowers you to continue and want to make improvements in other areas.

When I first started my final placement and we were discussing strengths, weaknesses etc my practice educator said she doesn’t use the term weakness so says area for improvement instead because weakness makes it sound as if you can’t do something whereas area for improvement says that you can do it, but you could be doing it better. It is improving on what you have already got instead of starting from scratch. I like that way of looking at it because it never made me feel like I couldn’t do something. I would like to think it has the same impact on the people we support and empowers them.

Learning about communication and approaches is important, don’t get me wrong but you can never know what is going to happen in a conversation with someone. There will be so many occasions where you will go to see someone and only find out when you arrive that they are tactile, so they like to stroke your hand or that they need something writing down to support their memory and their hearing. So, you can learn loads about what to do but at the end of the day it’s a conversation, whatever you are trying to achieve or whatever document you need to complete. Talk to someone like a person and you will generally get what is needed from a conversation and sometimes more than that. I have heard some amazing stories from people I have supported because I took the time to listen, wasn’t rushing away and remembered that although they are an older person, they have still had a life before and we are honoured to hear about that. Being able to have these conversations definitely makes me feel grateful.