Family Council basics: peer support
Par Family Councils Ontario
By Lorraine Purdon, FCO Executive Director
For decades, Family Councils across Ontario have been at the forefront of initiatives to ensure that the care for residents is patient centered and that family caregivers are seen as part of the health care team. Family Councils developed as families began to gather and share their experiences and help each other through the caregiving journey. In celebration of our 20 year history first as a program and for the last five years as an organization and to acknowledge the work of families long before the formalization of Family Councils in legislation, FCO is going to focus on some of the basics of the goals of Family Councils and what we have learned over the years about those goals.
The four common goals of a council are: Support, Communication, Education and advocacy. We are going to take each one of the goals and blog about them. As you read this series of blogs feel free to share your thoughts with us about these goals and the information and perspectives we are sharing.
Support has been defined broadly in the Family Council handbook Your Guide to Starting and Maintaining a Family Council (https://www.fco.ngo/resources/your-guide-starting-and-maintaining-family-council). The handbook gives several ideas about what support could mean for a Council but since this Guide was published we have a new appreciation for thinking about an aspect of support that is often overlooked in Council work: peer support. This blog will focus on peer support as the beginning of this series.
A simple definition of peer support (from Center for Social Action and Innovation in England and Wales) is: “Peer support in health and care encompasses a range of approached through which people with similar long term conditions or experiences support each other in order to better understand the condition and aid recovery or self-management.”
Of all the definitions you can find about peer support this one seems closest to how we can describe peer support for Family Council members. The experience of caring for someone before and after they enter a long-term care home is full of challenges, accommodations, and changes to relationships and family dynamics.
Some characteristics of peer support as it relates to Family Councils are:
- The sharing of the common experiences of caring for a person in long-term care,
- Solidarity with others who have had to make similar decisions and have had similar experiences, Encouraging and supporting each other in facing challenges and joys that caregiving brings,
- Creating a safe space so there is confidentiality and members can be assured that whatever they share in a Council meeting will not be shared beyond the group and, last but not least,
- Everyone maintains the group and shares in taking responsibility for the group’s ongoing success thus creating a sense of belonging.
Each of these characteristics are necessary for peer support to be a foundational principal of the goal of support for a council.
The questions remains of how do we make sure peer support is part of a Council meeting and to ensure that the challenges people are facing do not turn the meeting into a complaint session? One way that we have found to be effective is to dedicate fifteen minutes to half an hour for sharing. Ask who needs to share something and then divide the time allotted between those that have come forward. Set some parameters for the sharing including allowing people to speak uninterrupted for their allotted time. As well, in the sharing session it is important that the group appreciates the spoken word but does not need to provide advice or comments. Next, when the time is up the next person takes their turn. Not everyone needs to speak and it is not a time to offer advice but to listen deeply to the speaker and appreciate their situation and experience. The personal sharing details should not be noted in the minutes other than a general topic theme, for example, “personal sharing time.” Who spoke and the details of what was said should be kept confidential.
Following the sharing session, if there is something that someone shared that the Council wants to focus on and discuss further it can be brought up after the sharing period with permission from the person who spoke. Often, out of the sharing come tips and tools and strategies that have helped others in similar challenging situations. This is the incredible power of peer support.
Fostering relationships while caregiving can be a challenge in itself. Suddenly social life is reduced and people find themselves isolated. Family Councils can be a place where relationships can be fostered and this alone can reduce the isolation that many caregivers experience. Peer support through a Family Council can provide incredible support to family caregivers.
Other peer support activities may include:
- Welcoming new families to the home when a resident moves in,
- Reaching out to family members whose relatives have died, and
- Finding ways to show appreciation to the staff who care for residents.
Family Council members can also share more than their caregiving life. Sharing traditions, family stories and sharing food can bring a sense of fellowship to the group that can mean so much to a caregiver who feels isolated and alone.
As a former caregiver I can share with you that just being with other caregivers made me feel supported and not so alone. The friendships I established while on the Council are still important to me ten years later even though I left the Council many years ago.
As Rosalyn Carter said, “There are only four kinds of people in the world. Those who have been caregivers. Those who are currently caregivers. Those who will be caregivers, and those who will need a caregiver.”
Caregiving will touch everyone at some point in their life and we must find ways to support each other through the journey. The Family Council is perfectly positioned offer that support.