Category: Talks/Radio shows
Posted by Dr. El - June 14, 2019 - Business Strategies, McKnight's Long-Term Care News, Talks/Radio shows
I’ll be speaking about Behavioral Health in Senior Living at McKnight’s free Online Expo at 11am ET on Thursday, 6/20. To register for the virtual Expo, see the info below.
McKnight’s Online Expo, FREE, Thursday June 20th
Earn 3 Free CEUs at 3 Free webinars
Finally, a virtual trade show just for senior living professionals! During this one-day event on June 20, you’ll hear from dynamic speakers with great ideas about the senior living issues that matter. This is the show you’ve been waiting for and you don’t even need to leave your desk to attend!
Register for the conference in advance, and then log in to hear the talks, visit the vendors, and chat with the reps and attendees.
This year’s topics are:
- Behavioral Health in Senior Living: Improving Practices, Reducing Risk
- Mobile Tech: Friend or Foe in the Senior Living Workplace?
- The Talent War: 3 Strategies for Winning in Today’s Competitive Market
To register, go to: www.mcknightsseniorliving.com/June20Expo
Posted by Dr. El - July 29, 2018 - Books/media of note, Personal Reflections, Role of psychologists, Talks/Radio shows
NursingAssistantGuides.com, an educational site for certified nursing assistants, has a new podcast series featuring experts in the field of geriatrics and long-term care. The podcasts offer the chance for those considering or working toward becoming a nursing assistant to get insider information about the field. I was pleased to be interviewed by registered nurse Patricia Laramee about mental health and elder care for their most recent podcast.
To listen, click HERE and be sure to check out the other excellent podcasts on this page.
Patricia Laramee, RN of NursingAssistantGuides.com
Posted by Dr. El - September 10, 2015 - Communication, McKnight's Long-Term Care News, Talks/Radio shows
Over 1000 listeners attended my McKnight’s Fall Online Expo webinar, “Letting them go with style,” which focused on ways to use the loss of employees to strengthen your organization. McKnight’s editor Jim Berklan moderated the event and shared his thoughts about the webinar in his Daily Editor’s Notes column today. I’m gratified to hear that the talk helped participants consider aspects of staff departures in a way they hadn’t previously considered. (Thank you, Jim, for your kind review!)
You can hear the replay of the webinar (archived for a year) at: Expo Registration
It’s fairly likely that one or more of your employees will be leaving soon. That’s why you need to read this. It will make your organization healthier, and in ways you might have never imagined.
The goodbye guru would have it no other way.
I typed that name generically — with lowercase g’s — but I just as easily could have written Goodbye Guru. Then I would be referring to a specific person, namely Eleanor Feldman Barbera, Ph.D.
You might know her better as “Dr. El,” as in “The World According to Dr. El,” the award-winning blog that appears twice monthly on this website.
Regardless, she is an eloquent font of knowledge about what makes humans tick, and tock. Wednesday, we had a unique opportunity to hear her address a slightly off-kilter question: How should providers deal with an employee’s departure to create the best circumstances for their long-term care community?
I say “off-kilter” because the most common inference about a webinar named “Letting them go with style” would be that it’s about dying residents. Instead, Barbera fascinated listeners at McKnight’s Fall Online Expo with approaches and implications for dealing with departing employees.
Whether by firing, lay-off, resignation or for other reasons, employees leave long-term care operators often. And the emotional and psychological well-being of whoever remains is typically the worse for it — and usually to an unnecessary degree — Barbera pointed out.
It doesn’t have to be that way. She urged everyone to consider the multiple layers of messages any departure makes. This could mean saddened and suddenly insecure residents (“Who will take care of me?” “Didn’t she like me enough to say goodbye?”) to unnerved or perturbed staff members, to disgruntled or dangerous former employees.
All of which make for an unstable environment. Thus, more care should be taken with departing employees, Barbera emphasized. She illustrated numerous scenarios involving employee terminations, pointing out how providers can handle them better.
For the rest of Jim Berklan’s article, visit:
Posted by Dr. El - September 3, 2015 - Business Strategies, Communication, McKnight's Long-Term Care News, Talks/Radio shows
It’s time for McKnight’s Fall Online Expo!
I’m pleased to be presenting at 11am ET on Wednesday, September 9th on the topic of “Letting Them Go with Style.” This free hour-long webinar will focus on how to use the loss of employees to strengthen your organization.
The other two webinars will address reimbursement and technology. The Expo will also offer the opportunity to earn CE credits, visit with vendors and chat with colleagues. It’s a great way to attend a conference without leaving your desk. I highly recommend it.
For more information and to register, visit McKnight’s Fall Expo.
Hope to see you there!
Posted by Dr. El - May 18, 2015 - Business Strategies, Customer service, Depression/Mental illness/Substance Abuse, Engaging with families, Motivating staff, Talks/Radio shows
Join Dr. El
Wednesday, May 20th
at 2pm Eastern Time (1pm Central Time)
for a
FREE Webinar on
9 Ways to Improve the Effectiveness of your Social Work Department
& Increase LTC Resident Satisfaction
sponsored by EmLogis
To register:
About the webinar:
Are your residents depressed, their families distressed, and your staff turnover rate higher than you’d like? Empower your long term care social service department to lead the way to change! Join LTC expert and psychologist Dr. Eleanor Feldman Barbera for a live webinar on Wednesday, May 20, 2015 at 1pm CDT | 2pm EDT as she discusses the importance of social workers and ways in which an effective department can transform your community.
What you will learn:
The most important factors contributing to resident satisfaction
The impact of social workers upon resident, family and staff satisfaction
9 easy-to-implement strategies to develop your social work department
Who should attend this webcast:
Administrators and assistant administrators
DONs, ADONs, social workers
Staff training coordinators
Human resource department staff
Posted by Dr. El - April 28, 2015 - Depression/Mental illness/Substance Abuse, McKnight's Long-Term Care News, Talks/Radio shows
Here’s my latest article on McKnight’s Long-Term Care News:
Given that the bulk of my prior knowledge of Oklahoma came from a 72-year-old musical performed by my class during grade school, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I arrived in Norman for the 2015 Oklahoma Association of Health Care Providers/Oklahoma Assisted Living Association conference.
The upshot (based on the journey between the airport and the hotel): No fringed surries. Plenty of flat, open, grassy expanses. Chain stores. A bustling well-run conference. Animated conversations with attendees invested in providing enhanced care for their residents. Life-altering products in the Expo Hall.
Younger adults in senior living
I was invited for two talks, the first of which was on younger adults in senior care. The group focused on ideas for handling the challenges of younger residents, from those with illnesses such as ALS or spina bifida to people who led rough lifestyles prior to the disabling injuries (e.g. gunshot wounds) that led to placement in long-term care.
The talk addressed the emotional reactions caregivers have toward younger residents that can make it more difficult to work with them than with the typical older population. It also got into ways of unifying the team through training and policies, and strategies to engage younger residents in positive activities.
As I wrote in this 2008 article, meeting the needs of our younger residents now will help prepare our facilities for the differing expectations of the coming Baby Boom generation.
Addressing mental health in LTC
My second presentation focused on the need to address mental health problems in long-term care. Not a week goes by without a news story about a behavioral health problem in one of our facilities, such as an assault by a resident on a peer or staff member.
I offered a three-tiered model for addressing mental health care as part of our general healthcare. None of the three tiers — engaging mental health professionals, creating a healing emotional environment, and improving customer service — cost anything more than staff training and increasing the priority paid to behavioral health issues. Well worth it to avoid being the next facility with a negative news headline.
Rocking the expo hall
Between talks, I visited the expo hall in search of exhibits that offered solutions for my residents.
The first thing that caught my eye was the mod-looking geri-recliner.
For the entire article, visit:
Posted by Dr. El - March 24, 2015 - Bullying/Senior bullying, Resident care, Talks/Radio shows
Join Dr. El
Wednesday, March 25th
at 2pm Eastern Time (1pm Central Time)
for a
FREE Webinar on
4 Steps to Preventing Senior Bullying in Long Term Care
sponsored by EmLogis
To register:
About the Webinar:
Senior living communities often experience problems with bullying among residents. Join psychologist Dr. Eleanor Feldman Barbera on March 25th at 1pm central for a FREE WEBINAR as she discusses the importance of addressing bullying and outlines the path to creating an atmosphere that discourages bullying within your community.
What you will learn:
The impact of bullying
The types of behaviors considered bullying
Who is more likely to bully and to be bullied
Interventions to reduce bullying at the individual and organizational levels
Who should attend this webinar:
Administrators and assistant administrators
DONs, ADONs, department heads, nursing supervisors, charge nurses, social workers, and direct care staff
Staff training coordinators
Human resource department staff
Posted by Dr. El - February 23, 2015 - Communication, Motivating staff, Talks/Radio shows
Join Dr. El
Wednesday, February 25th
at 2pm Eastern Time (1pm Central Time)
for a
FREE Webinar on
Beyond Carrot and Stick: Motivating LTC Staff with “Nudge” Principles
sponsored by EmLogis
To register:
About the Webinar:
Employee recognition programs reward staff members for good behavior and discipline techniques (such as suspending staff members) discourage bad behavior. By using nudge principles in addition, organizations can develop unobtrusive methods to help staff do the right thing. Join psychologist Dr. Eleanor Feldman Barbera as she discusses nudge principles and how to use them to improve workflow and reduce conflict during a FREE webinar sponsored by EmLogis employee scheduling on Wednesday February 25th at 1pm central.
What you will learn:
What it means to use nudge principles with your staff
Three types of interventions employing this social psychology concept
How to harness nudge theory within your organization
Who should attend this webinar:
Administrators and assistant administrators
DONs, ADONs, department heads, nursing supervisors, and charge nurses
Staff training coordinators
Human resource department staff
Posted by Dr. El - February 18, 2015 - Business Strategies, Communication, End of life, McKnight's Long-Term Care News, Talks/Radio shows
Here’s my latest article on McKnight’s Long-Term Care News:
Last week, I attended the MarcusEvans LTC and Senior Living CXO Summit in Los Angeles, where I delivered a keynote address on “Identifying and Repairing Communication Gaps in LTC.” It was a fascinating, energizing event, and not just because I was leaving the frigid temperatures of New York City to dine outdoors in Marina Del Rey.
Of course, I was all jazzed up to speak about my obsession, long-term care. Of the many communication gaps I mentioned that need repairing, the one that most people commented on afterward was the way we handle end-of-life care.
Perhaps the ample feedback reflected how we, as a country, are spending so much money on aggressive medical treatments that are unlikely to help those who are dying and that most people wouldn’t want if they knew what they entailed. Or perhaps it’s because the vast majority of the audience was not only professionals in the field but also had a relative in long-term care. They recognized the value of having a peaceful death both for the resident and for their family.
It was interesting to me that only a few of these C-suite attendees had heard of Atul Gawande, MD, whose recent book on end-of-life care, “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” became the basis for a “Frontline” documentary that aired last week. Atul Gawande is all the rage in my circle.
I, on the other hand, was gobbling up new information about positioning care facilities to thrive over the long haul. The clinical and the financial sides of the business have a lot to teach each other.
One of the highlights for me was hearing Dr. Margaret Wylde of the ProMatura Group speak about what’s important to residents of senior living communities. I was so excited by her information that I leaped from my seat and shouted, “Yes! Yes! Right on, sister!” At least, that’s what I was doing on the inside, while my outside sat politely nodding in my gray business suit.
For the entire article, visit:
Posted by Dr. El - January 28, 2015 - Role of psychologists, Talks/Radio shows
I hope you’ll join me tomorrow, 1/29 when I speak about my work as a psychologist in long-term care with Lisa Singer in her Open Forum radio show on Women’s Radio Network.
Time: Thursday, January 29th, 12 noon ET
Place: Open Forum with Lisa Singer, WRNW1
