Health Professions Press | Press Release: CAREGIVER TRAINING PROGRAM WINS NATIONAL AWARD

Contact: Amy Perkins, Marketing Manager
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BALTMORE, MD – The Caring Spirit Approach to Eldercare: A Training Guide for Professionals and Families by Nancy Kriseman, M.S.W., LCSW, was awarded a bronze medal in the 15^th annual National Mature Media Awards Program. The awards program, presented by the Mature Market Resource Center , recognizes the nation’s finest educational, marketing, and advertising materials designed and produced for older adults. The Caring Spirit was one of nearly 1,200 entries judged for overall excellence of design, content, creativity, and relevance to the senior market.

The Caring Spirit is an innovative and interactive book and training program that promotes a new approach to caring for elders by focusing on spirituality, ethical values, and non-traditional caring methods that generally are overlooked in today’s formal care settings. Atlanta social worker Kriseman developed the program based on her twenty plus years of experience working with nursing facilities and elders and her own experience caring for a mother with Alzheimer’s. “When o ur culture ignores the spiritual side of caregiving, we see high turnover, low staff morale, and a lack of compassionate caring,” Kriseman says. “Bringing back ‘spirit’ to this work helps staff focus on more compassionate ways to care and helps them recognize how their own spirit affects the caring process.”

Kriseman has presented her work at national and regional conferences across the United States and has implemented the training program in more than 50 facilities in the Southeast. The program challenges staff members to rethink how to care for elders and teaches both staff and family members more compassionate strategies for caring for their loved ones and themselves. Benefits include enhanced quality of care, reduced caregiver stress, increased staff cooperation, and overall improved facility morale. One nursing home staff member says, “The Caring Spirit has made me more aware of how our residents’ spirits affect how they feel and their quality of life. It has made me rethink how I provide care.”

The Caring Spirit was also the recipient of the 2005 Human Resources and Aging Award from the American Society on Aging and the Brookdale Center on Aging. The Caring Spirit Approach to Eldercare: A Training Guide for Professionals and Families is available from Health Professions Press (Baltimore, MD). Kriseman is the president of Geriatric Consulting Services, Inc., a consulting company based in Atlanta, Georgia that provides counseling and training for elders and their families.