Person-Centered Care: Introduction
Learning Objectives and Key Terms for this lesson can be found on page 10 of your text.
Overview
“Person-centered” describes a particular way of thinking about people and how you treat them. Everyone equally deserves your interest, respect, empathy, compassion, and services. Person-centered behavior reflects that. People who care to be person-centered will get to know you. They want to learn what is important to you. They want to collaborate on solutions that meet your needs in a way that works for you. They promote your strengths, choice, direction, control, happiness, and well-being. In other words, person-centered people will learn about you, value you, and support you.
Person-Centered Philosophy
Person-centered care is not as simple as learning a step-by-step process. It is more like learning a philosophy, or a new way of thinking. In this training, you will learn several person-centered concepts. As you learn each concept ask yourself the following questions.
- Do I think this concept has value?
- Do I already apply this concept in my daily life?
- How can I apply this concept to my everyday caregiving practice?
- Do I believe that applying this concept to my caregiving will have a meaningful impact?
The concepts are organized into 3 categories: Learning about people, Valuing people, and Supporting people.