152 6.2.8 The Therapeutic Relationship

Establishing therapeutic relationships:

• Establish rapport
• Convey a non-judgmental attitude, encourage questions, listen to understand needs/concerns/priorities, and validate feelings
• Communicate in ways that convey that you care about the person
• Assess resident and family’s communication styles
• Establish priorities/wishes of resident and family
• Establish the amount of information the resident/SDM/family needs
• Establish preferred methods of  information sharing with family/resident

Therapeutic relationships stages:

• First encounter – strangers meeting for the first time
• Ongoing encounters – each encounter you get to know each other more
• End of the relationship – changing roles, retirement

Qualities of good working relationships:

• Mutual respect and acceptance
• Information sharing
• Shared responsibility and decision making
• Conflict is normalized
• Effective communication
• A sense of camaraderie or belonging
• Shared responsibility

Personal accountabilities:

• Establish clear boundaries and the limitations of your role
• Good communication is the foundation of therapeutic relationships
• Be transparent and honest
• Be reliable and consistent
• Have genuine interest for the well being of others
• Reflect on situations where therapeutic relationships were challenging to establish
• Cultural competence^{[1][2][3][4][5]}