No more Programs as “Life is not Programmable”

Did you know, the term program is a mark of an institution. Programs in and of themselves are a hallmark of institutional living. If you think about it, none of us are on as many programs as a person might be living in a nursing home. See how many you can think of… a restorative program, a bowel and bladder program or worse a toileting program, a walk-to-dine program. There are more. And then in our profession, what do we also call activities? Programs. Also, activity programming. Whew that’s a lot of programs. There is even the QAPI program, the infection control program, and many others. The other problem with the term program is that we tend to “check out.” Has this ever happened to you? When someone refers to the infection control program we tend to think, “Oh that’s not my program, that’s the infection preventionist’s program.” Or when someone refers to the API program, we might think, “Oh that’s the administrator’s program… or maybe we think, the administrator’s problem.” And yet, who should be concerned with infection control and quality assurance/performance improvement? All of us, thus another problem with the term program. To be honest, no one wants all these programs. And we don’ have to have them. I say, no more programs! Just another opportunity to shift to normal life.

I was blown away when I heard Carter Catlett Williams’ convening remarks at the Pioneer Network 2013 conference. Carter is a founding pioneer of the culture change movement. At the time she was in her 90’s, her husband had passed away two years prior and she herself moved into an independent living. She was a national voice to remove restraints in the 1980’s. Check out her experience of living in what is viewed as the more “independent” level of care in our long-term care continuum:

Now I was joining them and was emphatic to set myself apart. Society has done a number on us, even me a geriatric social worker of 40 years that a person with manifestations of aging is not a beautiful human being. The generations must find a way to share daily life.

Elders need the stimulation of young people … to offer encouragement and sometimes words of caution. And elders need relationships with middle ages. Children and young people need firsthand contact with elders that old age is not a strange, foreign country to them. I’m convinced we must offer multigenerational housing. Let’s not be confined to one stage of life. Educate yourselves and others about this new way of living because we belong together not in ghettos of old age or single age culture.

What I see in the current culture is largely programmatic: a varied program of activities is offered, trips to restaurants, ice cream shops as well as places of historic interest, shopping trips and many in-house activities. With such a wealth of activities, what could be lacking?

What is lacking is real life. Real life is not found in programs. Real life is in the give and take of everyday life. Our living in the apartment or touring bus screens us off of everyday life. We’re turned in on ourselves. What is there to talk about other than times past or the faulty air conditioning?

Beware of confusing programs with real life. Programs have their place but life in the wide world is not programmable. Life is filled with surprises, with hope as well as setbacks, with affirming as well as unsettling experiences.

As shapers and leaders of a new culture we must be very clear that the culture we are building does not rest on programs but on knowing each person, valuing what each person has to give and enabling each to give his/her contribution. Then we will be on the side of life.

Life is not programmable. Do any of you agree? I sure do. Have any of you stopped offering programs and started offering just good old normal life? That’s what I propose.

P.S. Have loved hearing from some of you how you are offering more and more community service options. Would love to hear from any of you who are offering more normal life options.

Carmen Bowman, MHS, Regulator turned Educator of Edu-Catering: Catering Education for Compliance and Culture Change is an activities/engagement and culture change consultant.  She offers new or not-yet-qualified activity director consultation and personalized continuing education for professionals/teams/associations including “be your own surveyor.”
carmen@edu-catering.com, 303-981-7228 www.edu-catering.com
See lots of real life and its positive outcomes at www.facebook.com/edu-catering.