Please don’t be put off by the lingo.
“Person-Centered Trauma Informed (PCTI)” care may sound a bit technical and perhaps even intimidating. But, at its core, a PCTI approach embodies the way every one of us should be treated.
For many years, CARES, Jewish Federation’s department that focuses on the needs of older adults, has advanced the belief that older adults, like all people, should be viewed and treated as unique individuals with a range of strengths and needs.
The PCTI philosophy reminds us to focus on individuals rather than on any system a provider may have put in place. It challenges us to prioritize the needs of the older adult, patient, client, or other individual with whom we are interacting. A PCTI approach urges us to do something basic: consider the impact of our words and actions on the person sitting across from us. This is especially important for people who have experienced trauma, such as Holocaust survivors. PCTI care acknowledges that the trauma an older person experienced many years ago may continue to impact that individual today. It calls upon us to consider a person’s lifetime of experiences.
What does this mean practically? How can each of us put PCTI practices into effect?
Here are just a few examples:
- When an older adult visits a doctor or a store and the doctor or clerk asks questions of the older adult directly (and doesn’t ask questions about the older adult to his child or caregiver), PCTI principles are being applied.
- When a Holocaust survivor who had been in hiding insists on locking every door and window and his daughter doesn’t insist on letting in the breeze and sunshine, PCTI principles are being applied.
- When someone who faced hunger during the Depression keeps food in her refrigerator that is long past its expiration date and her caregiver understands why, PCTI principles are being applied.
Sometimes, the person-centered part of PCTI care is emphasized. At other times, the focus may be on the trauma-informed part. But all of the examples above share an acknowledgement of the respect with which each of us should be treated.
You don’t need to be a health care professional to deliver PCTI care. CARES, often with the support and partnership of Jewish Family Service of MetroWest NJ and Jewish Family Service of Central NJ, educates community members in basic principles that, once embedded in our thought processes, enable us to serve older adults as individuals deserving of respect.
Today, we are requesting your partnership. Following PCTI principles often can involve some simple, low-cost, low-tech adjustments to the ways we interact, and CARES is proud to offer the Greater MetroWest community free trainings about ways we can make our interactions with older adults more individualized, more humane.
The sessions are normally very brief (an hour or less), can be in-person or virtual, and can be tailored to your precise needs. While PCTI care has special resonance for older adults, it really is applicable to our interactions with everyone.
Please consider if any of these scenarios or a similar scenario applies to you or your organization:
- Your synagogue office would like to become even more person-centered.
- You run a business (maybe a home healthcare agency, a store, or a medical practice) and would like to help your staff learn about the trauma experienced by Holocaust survivors and other older adults.
- You are involved in training the next generation of professionals in a particular field and would like to help them deliver services in a more compassionate way.
If you would like to discuss a training for your organization/office, please contact Debbie Rosen at [email protected] or (973)-929-2993.
Together, let’s make the Greater MetroWest NJ community a leader in PCTI care. Let’s reaffirm our commitment to the mitzvah of honoring parents. The poignant psalm reminds us of how we all want to be treated today or in the future: “Don’t cast me off in old age; when my strength fails, do not forsake me.”
When we employ PCTI principles, we respond to an older person’s requests:
See me. Hear me. Understand me.