What Living as a Resident Can Teach Long-Term Care Staff

Transform your culture of care using the innovative program Through the Looking Glass!

Created by an administrator struggling to jump-start culture change in her care community, Through the Looking Glass is a unique program that changes staff attitudes and teaches the importance of person-centered care practices by placing staff directly in the shoes of residents—with remarkable results.

Even the most caring staff can fail to appreciate the effects of challenges that residents in long-term care can face on a daily basis. This book introduces you to a program that builds staff empathy for residents’ experiences by having them simulate a diagnosis and live alongside residents. The lessons learned create more compassionate caregivers, improve care practices, and enhance well-being for both staff and residents.

Learn how to set up this program in any residential care setting, as well as ways to address high turnover through the hiring and orientation process. Measurable benefits include:

• Elimination of personal body alarms

• Decreased falls

• Reduced use of psychotropic drugs

• Increased staff retention and satisfaction

Filled with compelling journal entries of real staff experiences, this hopeful and encouraging book will inspire you to achieve truly person-centered care.

“Administrators who want to reduce staff turnover while providing a more dignified living experience for residents should put this book at the top of their reading list.” —Jim Vanden Bosch, M.A., Executive Director, Terra Nova Films

“Let this book inspire you to risk change with nothing to lose and much to gain, [including] helping you comply with the new CMS requirements on person-centered care.” —Carmen Bowman, M.H.S., B.S.W., Consultant and former Regulator, Edu-Catering: Catering Education for Compliance and Culture Change

“If you follow Leslie Pedtke’s approach, it will lead you to a truly person-centered, respectful, and loving community.” —Gary Glazner, Founder and Executive Director, Alzheimer’s Poetry Project

“Learn how care practices and other aspects of nursing home life should be different and what to do to make it so.” —Cathy Lieblich, M.A., Director of Network Relations, Pioneer Network