Senior sensitivity training is an educational program that offers unique insight on seniors, allowing stronger more compassionate relationships to form despite generational gaps.
Our senior clientele always raves about our team of awesome drivers, saying how each one makes them feel like family. We do hire some pretty stellar staff, but we also provide senior sensitivity training to all drivers. This educational material gives our drivers the appropriate background knowledge to form even stronger relationships with elderly patients due to a greater understanding of where they are coming from. We wouldn’t have it any other way, after all customer service is our number one priority.
What Is Senior Sensitivity Training?
There are many different forms of senior sensitivity training courses. There are hands-on courses you can enroll in online as well as out in the real world. We offer our senior sensitivity training course on-site and use a variety of films that dive deep into the heart of working with seniors. These videos also provide information regarding what’s it like to get older and common issues seniors are faced with that we want our drivers to be sensitive to.
Also known as ageing awareness, senior sensitivity training is on the rise. We feel that sending our drivers off to work with seniors without the proper training would be unfair to everyone involved. Sort of like having someone work with kids without any prior knowledge about children. Except, we have all been kids before but we have not all been seniors just yet. Therefore, it’s a lot harder to relate to and understand seniors than children, unless you have the proper training.
Understanding How It Feels To Age
One of the key fundamentals of senior sensitivity training relates to what it is like to live everyday as an ageing senior. As one ages there are many day-to-day challenges that were once second nature. This naturally creates frustration that could be difficult for someone to understand until his or her eyes are opened to the reality of the situation.
Seniors tend to walk slower, and so senior sensitivity training prompts you to understand why by asking you to walk with rocks in the bottom of your shoes. Seniors may say “what” a lot, but that’s only because as we age our hearing decreases. In senior sensitivity training one may be prompted to put balls of cotton in their ear and try to hear someone talking softly and facing the opposite direction.
These hands-on activities grant a unique insight regarding what it’s like to get older.
People can recognize the physical changes associated with ageing; after all we can identify an old person from a young person. Just because we know what happens physically to the body doesn’t mean we fully understand what it feels like to live in an ageing body. That’s exactly what senior sensitivity training teaches. This sort of understanding brings about a higher level of compassion, from which greater care arises.
Understanding How Aging Impacts Mood
If your back is hurting or you’re having trouble remembering where you put your eyeglasses you have every right to be in a sour mood. Most seniors are incredibly friendly and easy going, but there are times when everyone forgets their manners. With all of the issues seniors may face they have more excuses than any of us to have a bad attitude day.
It’s important for personal working with the elderly on a regular basis to understand the things that can put seniors in a bad mood. This helps develop sympathy and it also allows our drivers to better help patients start to feel better, even if it’s just through a few simple words.
If an elderly patient has dementia or Alzheimer’s this may cause them to suddenly become hysterical, angry or confused. All of this could be very concerning to the person in charge of their care, unless they have an understanding of what’s going on. Our drivers have an in-depth knowledge of common, and even not so common, senior ailments that could potentially cause side effects such as mood swings or erratic behavior. This also helps drivers identify the difference between normal behavior and behavior that warrants closer medical attention.
Dispelling Senior Myths
Elderly sensitivity training helps dispel a lot of myths out there regarding the senior community. Having preconceived notions about someone you work with, especially if they are not true, is never a good way to get off on the right foot. We dispel myths on day one of training so that our drivers are educated on the truth and nothing else.
We firmly believe that the better you know your customer, the better service you can provide to them.
If you want the best care possible for your favorite senior, contact Stellar Transportation for all non-emergency medical transportation services, local and long distance.