Housing and Care 21 staff attended Empowered Conversations training to better understand their customers’ needs and improve communication.
Here Janice Crompton, who is a Housing Services Manager in Oldham for Housing and Care 21, talks about her experience of the workshops – and why it was important for all staff to attend.
“As part of my role, I manage teams to deliver housing management, customer services and support services to residents living in sheltered and Extra Care housing.
“As a housing association, who support the over 50s, we understand the sensitivity of communicating with residents, who have a range of health-related problems including dementia.
“Staff have been on a number of different dementia related courses but everyone felt that the Empowered Conversations sessions were much more practical and engaging, giving us real techniques to use on a day-to-day basis.
“There were a number of people who’d had personal experience of dementia on the course as well as professional experience by interacting with our residents.
“Our staff members are now using the techniques learnt every day when communicating with different residents. The more that people use the techniques, the more comfortable and natural the conversation with the resident becomes.
“It made me rethink the way I communicate with some of our residents and people I meet outside of work.
“I enjoyed all aspects of the training – it was very interactive and engaging. Everyone had an opportunity to contribute their experiences and was encouraged to do so, I would highly recommend the training to anyone who works with people.”
Interested in improving dementia communications in your workplace? Contact Emma to find out about tailored training solutions: Emma@empowered-conversations.co.uk