A Practical Guide to Effective Family Training for
Rehabilitation Professionals (Recorded Webinar)
Presented by Lauren Schwabish
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Nonfinancial: Lauren Schwabish is an advisory board member for Dementia Society of America. She is also a board member for A Purposeful Day and an affiliate for National Aphasia Association. She is a member of ASHA and Aphasia Access. She has no competing nonfinancial interests or relationships with regard to the content presented in this course.
This course is a recording of a previously hosted live webinar event. Polling and question submission features are not available for this recording. Format and structure may differ from those of standard MedBridge courses.
Clinicians working in rehabilitation are essential to facilitating successful experiences in caregiving. This webinar focuses on understanding the key ingredients to effective family training, including methods to establish learning needs, techniques to increase comfort with hands-on care, and strategies to handle challenging situations.
Learning Objectives
- Outline the benefits of family training to facilitate safe handling, mobility, and activities of daily living
- Recognize real-life obstacles affecting clinicians and family
- Identify tools to establish the learning needs and burdens of caregivers
- Identify strategies to handle difficult family training situations
- Build awareness of learning resources to share with families
Meet your instructor
Lauren Schwabish
Lauren Schwabish is the owner of Neuro Speech Services, a private practice based in Northern Virginia specializing in person-centered assessment and treatment of cognitive-communicative disorders related to stroke, brain injury, mild cognitive impairment, ADHD, and other neurologic and neurodegenerative conditions. Lauren…
Chapters & learning objectives
1. The Who, What, and Why of Family Training in Rehabilitation
In this chapter, we will review the broad definitions of “family,” the spectrum of participation in rehab therapy sessions, and various forms of conventional and hands-on education and training. We will discuss the benefits experienced by the client, family, clinician, and healthcare system when family plays a central role in the plan of care.
2. Obstacles to Watch For
This chapter covers the structural, individual, and interpersonal obstacles to training families. Real-world examples will be described, including limited health literacy, psychosocial stress, insufficient resources or time, ineffective communication, and caregiver motivation and expectations.
3. Meet Them Where They Are
In this chapter, we will review tools and techniques to introduce family training early on in the process and establish existing knowledge, learning preferences, and perceived burdens as caregivers. Content will include active listening skills, formal questionnaires, and simple actions to increase comfort and sense of self-efficacy. We will review the universal precautions concept of providing information accessible at all levels of health literacy.
4. How to Handle Difficult Family Interactions
Working with families can be stressful for clinicians. This chapter will help to build empathy and empower clinicians to use effective communication techniques to manage challenging situations. We will review a training program used by oncology nurses: Responding to Challenging Interactions with Families (RCIF).
5. Fill Your Training Tool Kit to Help Learning Last
This chapter will provide clinicians with ideas of how to build a family’s tool kit for learning and caregiver support, including online resources (like AARP’s Home Alone Alliance and WellMed’s Caregiver SOS) and information to emphasize the need for caregiver support (including support groups and relaxation techniques) to ensure that caregivers can sustain use of learned information and remain healthy and successful as care partners.
6. Question and Answer Session
This chapter is a viewer-submitted question and answer session facilitated by the instructor.