Transformer les soins aux personnes âgées : l'excellence en matière de communication chez TheKey Calgary

 Caregiving really is a collaborative effort. To deliver personalized, balanced and holistic care for seniors in Alberta, we need to maintain open lines of communication between everyone involved. Loved ones must understand what’s going on, and have easy access to caregiver insight. They should be able to ask questions and share observations back to caregivers about what they’re noticing, too. In many cases, a senior remains here – say, in Britannia in southwest Calgary. But their sons and daughters may have moved to Toronto, Montreal or the United States. Communication is incredibly important in those cases, too. We want family members to feel confident and reassured that the senior in their life is happy and well. Communications are vital to that. 

Our Client Success Managers are the main conduit for information between caregivers and families. They centralize info and share updates out through established channels like email, phone calls or within our online client platforms. Anecdotally, I know a lot of families that are rarely in the same place at the same time tend to designate a point-person who is responsible for liaising with our team at TheKey. This can streamline things, ensuring we’re getting information out and responding to questions quickly. Families shouldn’t have to wait to know how things are going. We make sure that they don’t. 

We aim for what I like to call the Three C’s: consistent, comprehensive and compassionate communication. Consistency speaks to the regular cadence of updates. We want to provide a steady stream of updates so that families feel supported and aren’t caught off guard by anything. We talk often and create regular touchpoints so people have the right info at the right time. Comprehensive means we consider the big picture. TheKey’s Balanced Care Method ^® is designed to address the whole person: body, mind and spirit. When we update a senior’s family, we cover all aspects of their wellbeing because all of it matters. Last but not least comes compassion. We go beyond the transactional to provide empathetic caregiving that puts the senior first. We build our care plans around an individual’s specific needs, capabilities, interests, likes and dislikes. That lends itself to our communications style, too. We always lead with compassion when communicating with a client’s family, because what they’re going through is hard and we exist to ease that burden. 

We know that by 2040, older adults are projected to make up close to one-fourth of Canada’s population. Here in Alberta, one in five people will be a senior by 2051. More and more families will be seeking caregiving support. Our team understands that surge in demand, and we remain committed to the values that have always defined our caregiving. This is a special team that delivers truly personalized elder and in-home senior care. As we grow, we’ll evolve our communications platforms and channels to best suit the needs of a changing client base. We’re committed to adapting along with Calgary seniors and their families, so we can communicate consistently, comprehensively and compassionately about the care someone receives.