Travels with Bonnie
The Spirit of St. Louis and the Consumer Movement for Culture Change
March 31, 2009
I was quite the celebrity this past month in the St. Louis airport. My plane back to Columbus was delayed and I began talking with members of a tour group who were embarking on a trip out west. Janine, a lovely woman in her early 70s, who, it turns out, is a caregiver for her mother and mother-in-law, started it all by asking me why I was in St. Louis and why I looked so happy despite the delay. I explained that I had just given a keynote address at American Health Care Association's (ACHA) first annual National Quality Symposium. I shared with her, and the group that began to swell around me, about the audience and the speakers and how committed every single person there was to ensuring high quality care and caring. I shared with them the resounding commitment of the AHCA audience of over 250 to help make person-centered care the norm and the agreement that person-centered care was a core component of quality. Well, by that time I could have used a megaphone; the entire tour group was now gathered round. We sat right near a replica of Charles Lindbergh's plane, the
Spirit of St. Louis.
Quality…nursing homes… the juxtaposition of both terms in one sentience "didn't compute" as one gentlemen stated. Someone brought tea and coffee, someone else sprang for the pretzels and cinnamon rolls. And I put on both my "teacher" hat and culture change hat -- and away we went.
Some of the questions were ones I expected such as:
As consumers – family, caring friends and elders themselves -- how can they identify a quality nursing
home? And what kinds of questions should they ask?
What I didn't expect were the questions that focused on how they could learn more about culture change, and whether I thought it was important for consumers to be involved.
For the next 10 minutes or so, we chatted about the role of the consumer. I first explained the key reasons that we need consumer advocates. I explained to the group, the core principles of patient and person-centered care first articulated by the Picker Institute in the seminal text, Through the Patient's Eyes. We also talked about the "Simple Rules for the 21st Century Health Care System" issued by the Institute of Medicine which called for the consumer (in this case the elder) to be the source of control, for knowledge to be shared, and for information to flow freely. We agreed that until folks like them-- future consumers and family members alike -- are exposed to these principles and practices as they relate to long-term care, they will not be able to be leaders in promoting change nor will they be able to affect change for themselves and their loved ones.
It was with glee that I was able to let the group know that our work this upcoming year directly addresses the desire we share with the tour group, all of you, the Picker Institute, the Institute of Medicine, and many others to empower current and future consumers to understand, appreciate and then advocate for the kind of care, caring and ability to direct daily life we all want for our loved ones.
Thanks to the generous support of the
Picker Institute, we are embarking on a public awareness campaign to inform consumers about culture change so they can help make change happen and "stick." Pioneer Network will partner with the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA), the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA), the American Health Care Association (AHCA), the American Medical Directors Association (AMDA), the Coalition of Geriatric Nursing Organizations (CGNO), and the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (NCCNHR) in a pilot project to engage a cadre of future consumers as promoters and advocates for a new approach to services for our elders. This project will bring discussions of the culture of aging in America into our living rooms, our community centers, our churches and temples, and our civic groups. For more information on both our grant and the
Picker Institute, please click
here.
When I got home I did a bit of research on Charles Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis. It turns out that the plane was actually named after his supporters in St. Louis to thank them for their "push and their support." As he wrote in 1927:
"The
Spirit of St. Louis is a wonderful plane. It's like a living creature, gliding along smoothly, happily, as though a successful flight means as much to it as to me, as though we shared our experiences together, each feeling beauty, life, and death as keenly, each dependent on the other's loyalty. We have made this flight across the ocean, not I or it."
I will never forget the great folks I met at the St Louis airport—their sprit and their "push." We are thrilled to have the opportunity to further involve consumers like them in the culture change movement so we can say; WE have made this journey across the country together; dependent on each other's loyalty and commitment.
Thank you for embracing the sprit. Thank you for "flying" with Pioneer Network. Together, and only together, will we make person-centered care the norm that which any elder can expect in whatever setting they call home.
Click below to read Bonnie' s past blogs:
December 2008 February 2009