Hale Makua Teaches Compassionate Caring

Written by Sunrise on KGMB9 - sunrise@kgmb9.com

June 16, 2008 08:40 AM

This morning I've got an old friend with me, Tony Krieg, who's the President of the Hale Makua over on Maui. Tony, we've known each other for a long time, and you've been a strong advocate for reform in nursing homes for as long as I've known you. What's happening over there on Maui?

TONY KRIEG: Well, Hale Makua's 60 years old last year. And I've been there for 25.

DR. THOMAS: Wow. Congratulations.

TONY KRIEG: And so, about 10 years ago, we realized that people were unhappy. Our staff was unhappy, the clients were unhappy, the families were unhappy. Because a nursing home is kind of like a giant battleship. It has routines, it has people in uniforms, it has hierarchies…

DR. THOMAS: It doesn't feel like home.

TONY KRIEG: No. And they were built around the 60's to emulate a hospital. And so people were living in a room with a curtain between them and the next bed. So, that's not a recipe for long-term care. Care in the long term. Because people didn't live past a year or so in 1965.

DR. THOMAS: Right.

TONY KRIEG: So what we've been doing is we've created a curriculum with Maui Community College called Compassionate Caring, that is not teaching people to be compassionate to elders so much as to be compassionate to themselves. Because you can't give unless you are giving to yourself.

DR. THOMAS: Now I think this is one of the secrets of caregiving, whether it's at home or the nursing home. People, anybody involved with caregiving has to be centered and has to have a relationship themself so they can enter into that two-way relationship with an elder.

TONY KRIEG: And they're dealing with elders and families who are not feeling real happy about moving away from home, and their families are guilty…

DR. THOMAS: Great challenge.

TONY KRIEG: A great challenge. So, then I met your work. I went to the Green Houses in Tupelo, visited you on the farm, and got another way of thinking about the nursing home, and maybe we can break it up into neighborhoods. So instead of 250 beds where you have to bring everybody to a centralized location -- which is very "efficient" -- where everybody gets a bath on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at a certain time. How do we bring the care as close to the elders as possible? Because, and a lot of my colleagues won't agree with me, and they'll probably be angry at me with this, but you know, isolation, helplessness and lack of meaning, is what happens in nursing homes, because you lose your identity.

DR. THOMAS: Right.

TONY KRIEG: Whether you're a billionaire, or a priest, a rabbi, a truck driver - when you walk into a nursing home, you become a resident.

DR. THOMAS: So, I mean what's happening in the field give me hope and I think it gives you hope is this idea that we can make a place where love matters. Where you can work with the caregivers to help them feel centered in themselves and create a loving environment, and you know as a doctor, people don't expect me to be talking about love. It's like you were saying, people in your field have an issue with you, but I think it's the future.

TONY KRIEG: Yeah, I have some questions that you and others have taught me to think about and I think about them every day: How would a nursing home environment that revolves around illness, frailty and treatment be different from an environment that revolves around plants, animals, and children? And do we push elders towards helplessness when we confuse treatment in a medical setting with caring?

DR. THOMAS: And those kinds of questions are the ones that are going to pull long-term care out of the 1960's and 70's, into the 21st Century in Hale Makua and around the state as a whole. And I really look forward to having you back and talking about the journey and progress and maybe meet some of your elders and caregivers too.

TONY KRIEG: It's about giving elders the idea that they're in charge, and instead of having the staff say, "What do you mean, they're in charge?", the staff is working with the elders to bring out what's there in elders. No matter where they are in the nursing home in terms of their physical or mental ability.

DR. THOMAS: Great, Tony. Always glad to have you.

Last Updated ( June 16, 2008 08:40 AM )

County Agencies on Aging Senior Helplines
(For all information and resources related to aging and caregiving)

Elderly Affairs Division, Oahu
Phone: 768-7700
www.elderlyaffairs.com
Hawaii County Office on Aging
Phone: 961-8626
http://www.hcoahawaii.org/
Kauai Agency on Elderly Affairs
Phone: (808) 241-4470
http://www.kauai.gov/elderly
Maui County Office on Aging
Phone: (808) 270-7774
http://www.co.maui.hi.us/departments/Housing/aging.htm