Culture Change

Most of our current facilities were built in the 1960’s and 1970’s, and our physical plants just don’t support “real-living” in long term care. We sometimes refer to traditional homes as “double-barreled-corridors” in reference to the layout of long hallways with rooms on both sides. In a nutshell: convenient for staff.

And that’s the essence (convenience for us) of why culture change has been difficult for our facilities. We have spent 50 years making things as convenient as possible for our staff. Right now we are in a transition phase where we are building physical plants that cater more to the resident, but we are still creating policies, procedures, and programs with staff convenience in mind, whether we admit it or not.

There is probably nothing harder than changing staff attitudes about delivery of care. The Japanese have a culture of true respect for their elders - something that we have lost in America. Not to say that there aren’t health care workers in the US that operate under this premise; there are thousands. As a culture, though, we no longer value our seniors as we used to. Until we can change the culture (ie culture change) NOTHING will change permanently.

What an unfortunate thought that is.