What is a SUSTAINABLE Care Provider?

Here we are into the second half of the COMPLETE SUPPORT Manifesto for Caregivers.  Under the COMPLETE acronym, we’ve so far tackled: Caring; Openness; Maturity; Partnership; Loyalty; Excellence; Tribe; and Exacting.

Under the SUPPORT banner, we’re now forging into: Sustainability; Uncompromising (standards); Professionalism; Presence; Organized; Respect; and Truth.  Today, we start with Sustainability – which refers to staying the course and following through for the long haul.

What is SUSTAINABILITY All About?

First of all, your care provider consistently does what they say they will.  His or her word is fulfilled like an honoring commitment.  All loops are closed, even if their part of a process is done.  Should there be a change of hands, you get personally introduced to the next colleague in the chain of ‘command’.  In corporate life, we used to call this attending to the ‘white spaces’ on the organizational chart.  At the hand-offs, tasks typically slip through the cracks.

What Is SUSTAINABILITY Not About?

Speaking of dropped balls, has an agency or person supporting you on the caregiving journey ever promised to call and didn’t?  Despite repeated requests, have you ever failed to receive promised information or wondered if an agreed item is being done?  I hope you’ve never gone into a silence vacuum for days on end!  If you have, I wouldn’t be surprised if your anxiety levels climbed through the roof.  Each of these are examples of non-sustainability.

Questions for Reflection

To advance your contemplations about seeing through things for the long haul, here are a few questions:

1. What behaviors build trust/generate confidence in you?
2. What other behaviors besides silence and broken promises promote anxiety in you?
3. What attitudes and actions can or will you undertake to lower your stress levels in the face of lack of follow-through?

Next Steps

As we prepare to address the qualities of UNCOMPROMISING (i.e., unbending ethics and integrity) next time, allow me to leave you with this thought-provoking quotation from George Washington Carver: “Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps full the dinner pail is valuable.”  (That is not a typo.)

Uncompromising further describes my bone-deep commitment toward overwhelmed caregivers by way of my weekly live radio show at  www.boldbravemedia.com/shows/the-conscious-caregiver/.  On the heels of introducing my unique ADVOCACY Model, we will look at how workplaces need to wake up and smell the coffee of caregiver employees’ realities.

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Carol-Ann Hamilton

Carol-Ann Hamilton has taken her 25 years of corporate experience and turned it into an issue of personal importance. She is a pioneer-activist on the leading-edge of the exploding aging crisis and seeks to save fellow Sandwich Generation caregivers a fraction of her anguish.

Latest posts by Carol-Ann Hamilton (see all)

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